Water Resources

Confronting the Challenges of Climate Variability and Change through an Integrated Strategy for the Sustainable Management of the La Plata River Basin for the Fifth World Water Forum. (2009)

Legal and Institutional Framework in the Management of the Transboundary Aquifer Systems of the Americas (2008)

Binational Master Plan for Integral Development of the Lake Titicaca, Desaguadero River, Poopó, Coipasa Salt Marsh System (TDPS System)
Executive Summary in English (1996)


The TDPS region is characterized by overlapping cultural and economic systems in which a vast agrarian subsistence economy exists side by side with agricultural sectors directed at regional and national markets and with a mining industry looking abroad. The impact on natural resources has varied, but in every case their consumption and depletion are not included in the costs of production. The ancestral values based on respect for "Mother Earth" have largely died out, and nature is perceived as an inexhaustible fount of resources and a waste dump. The widespread poverty and low levels of education prevent the population from developing an awareness of the limits on their resources, and only in the wake of major natural catastrophes such as droughts and floods have some sectors of the society begun to think about the cause-and-effect relationship between the use and management of natural resources and those catastrophes.

A change in behavior toward the natural environment, especially on the part of those sectors causing it the most harm (mining, mining-based industry, urban concentration) requires a change in attitude based on an understanding of, and respect for, the region's physical and biological processes, its natural and cultural-anthropological values, and the right of its indigenous peoples to emerge from poverty by receiving a growing share of the return on the development of its resources. This change in outlook requires more effective action by the state, with a comprehensive policy including the creation and enforcement of legal, institutional and fiscal mechanisms and economic incentives and resources designed to further sustainable development in the region. Real participation by the local communities in administering the areas within their jurisdiction is also needed.

The present environmental assessment is an important step toward those ends.

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Environmental Management and Sustainable Development of the San Juan River Basin
Executive Summary in English (1997)


In October of 1994, UNEP and GS/OAS signed an Agreement in which both organizations agreed to support Costa Rica and Nicaragua the two countries in carrying out this Project.  The project's main objectives were defined as those relating to human development and the preservation of natural resources and ecosystems. The following aspects were given priority: (a)Management and preservation of shared basins and water resources; (b)Management of protected areas and preservation of biodiversity; (c) Incentives for the development of sustainable economic activities; (d) Overcoming the population's conditions of poverty, and attention to indigenous groups; and (e) Institutional strengthening and legislation which would reconcile key issues at the border and Central American level.

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Environmental Quality and River Basin Development: A Model for Integrated Analysis and Planning (1978)

This document is the result of nearly two years of work by the staff of the Program of Regional Development, Argentine coworkers, and several international consultants (Appendix A).  Every effort has been made to make the content and prose applicable to the needs of project directors and field staff working in the planning of river basin development. Consequently, scientific and specialized terminology have been kept to a minimum and the recommendations have been made in full consideration of the realities of developing countries.  The document has been purposefully kept short to give it the character of a guidebook rather than that of an exhaustive treatise on the subject of environment and development.

Although the methodology has been designed to guide the early planning stages of river basin development in semiarid regions of the developing world, much of it is applicable to regional and sectoral planning efforts in the more humid regions. Similarly, it should find use as a text and reference material in those training centers and institutions that relate to development planning.

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Hydraulic Resources Development Plan for Loja Province (1994)

With the general objective of preparing a Hydraulic Resources Development Plan for Loja Province, the government of Ecuador asked the Organization of American States to conduct this study as part of the Technical Cooperation Program for the 1990-91 biennium.

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► Integrated Management of Water Resources and Sustainable Development of the San Juan River Basin and its Coastal Zone (2001)

The document summarizes the preliminary findings resulting from the PDF-Block B phase of the Project which included the preparation of a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA). It also describes the components and working elements for the formulation of a Strategic Action Program for the Integrated Management of Water Resources and the Sustainable Development of the San Juan River Basin and its Coastal Zone.

Integrated Water Resources Management in Mesoamerica  (1998)

The governments of the Western Hemisphere recognize that sustainable development depends on the availability of potable water, the prevention of pollution, the protection of aquatic ecosystems, international cooperation, the involvement and participation of users in planning and decision making, and the promotion of integrated management of this resource. To promote the sustainable development of water resources, the governments have adopted initiatives 47 to 58 related to water resources and coastal areas of the Action Plan for the Sustainable Development of the Americas, which was prepared during the Summit on Sustainable Development in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, 1996 (Table 1).

The Workshop on Integrated Water Resources Management in Mesoamerica took place in Panama City on October 20 to 22, 1997. The objective of the workshop was to obtain cooperation, understanding, and agreement between policy- and decision-makers and scientists on issues related to water-resources management in Mesoamerica.

This workshop report contains an evaluation of the degree to which countries have implemented each of the initiatives that were approved and adopted by the governments of the region. It lists national and international meetings on integrated water-resources management that have taken place or will be organized in the near future to discuss similar initiatives and recommends a set of future activities.

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Physical Planning and Management Plan for the San Miguel and Putumayo River Basins (PSP)
Executive Summary in English (1987)


Under the Amazon Cooperation Treaty, the governments of Colombia and Ecuador signed a cooperation agreement in 1979 to promote and oversee the two countries' bilateral activities in the Amazonian region. In 1985, both governments reaffirmed the need to encourage sectoral activities in the border region and decided to begin to draw up a binational action plan to steer regional development towards sustainable development objectives that were compatible with their fragile ecological systems. Thus, in 1986, the Physical Planning and Management Plan for the San Miguel and Putumayo River Basins (PSP) was approved and initiated.

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Plan for Integral Development of the Putumayo River Basin
Executive Summary in English (1993)


In concurrence with the objectives, policies and strategies specified in each country's Amazonian Development Plan, the overall PPCP goals can be summarized as follows: (a) To promote the harmonious and sustained development of the area; (b) To integrate the area with the rest of the territory by constructing roads and other transportation facilities and establishing communication links, as well as through political, cultural, social and economic inter-action; (c) To improve the population's standard of living; (d) To concentrate, in the native communities, on substantially improving the handling of territorial issues, and the provision of basic social and health services, including the conservation of areas traditionally inhabited by such communities while protecting the fundamental rights of those communities, and, in particular, their social and cultural integrity; (e) To promote research and the compilation of information on the area.

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Proceedings of Interamerican Dialogue on Water Management (1993)

In concurrence with the objectives, policies and strategies specified in each country's Amazonian Development Plan, the overall PPCP goals can be summarized as follows: (a) To promote the harmonious and sustained development of the area; (b) To integrate the area with the rest of the territory by constructing roads and other transportation facilities and establishing communication links, as well as through political, cultural, social and economic inter-action; (c) To improve the population's standard of living; (d) To concentrate, in the native communities, on substantially improving the handling of territorial issues, and the provision of basic social and health services, including the conservation of areas traditionally inhabited by such communities while protecting the fundamental rights of those communities, and, in particular, their social and cultural integrity; (e) To promote research and the compilation of information on the area.

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  • Report of the Secretary General on Bolivia Summit Implementation (1998)

    In the context of the institutional arrangements set up in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, the Secretary General of the Organization American States was given the mandate to submit a report on progress attained in the implementation of the initiatives of the Plan of Action on Sustainable Development. The report, to be made available prior to the 1998 Summit of the Americas, was intended as a follow-up on the commitments entered into in Bolivia. This paper is in compliance with the coordinating and follow-up roles entrusted to the OAS.

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    • Source Book of Alternative Technologies for Freshwater Augmentation in Latin America and the Caribbean (1997)

      This document was prepared by the Unit for Sustainable Development and Environment of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) as part of the joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Water Branch and International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) initiative to provide water resource managers and planners, especially in developing countries and in countries with economies in transition, with information on the range of technologies that have been developed and used in the various countries throughout the world.

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      Strategic Action Program for the Bermejo Binational River Basin (2000)

      This document summarizes the preliminary findings and recommendations resulting from the two-year formulation phase of the Strategic Action Program for the Binational Basin of the Bermejo River.  .

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