Opening Session

Mr. Jorge Bonilla, National Director of PROCUENCA-SAN JUAN from Costa Rica opened the session by citing several points from the “Diagnostic Study of the San Juan River Basin” (1997) and its “Strategic Action Program.” He stated that the results of the workshop would not only provide additional material for the action plan, butalso an input to the Third World Water Forum to be held in March of 2003 in Japan. His statements were followed by welcoming comments from Mr. Victor Brodersohn, Director of the Office of the OAS Secretary General in Costa Rica.

Pablo Gonzalez, of the Unit for Sustainable Development and Environment of the OAS (OSDE/OAS), presented the procedures used to develop the Strategic Action Program for the basin including preliminary studies, a search for the root causes of problems in the basin, and preparation of the demonstration projects and concrete actions used to prove certain technologies, methods and cooperative alliances. The planning process included participation of civil society and workshops that helped establish a dialogue between the various interests and stakeholders in the basin. In addition to the problems discovered through the root cause analysis (the major root cause being the extreme poverty of the region), the three crosscutting issues of gender, migration, and natural hazards were emphasized throughout the planning process. He also said that the International Secretariat of the Dialogue on Water and Climate hopes that the dialogue will answer the following questions: What are the challenges of climate variability that the users of water in the basin face? How are these challenges confronted? Are there workable coping practices that can be used elsewhere?