Water Resources
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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.
 851Kb - 42 pages
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.
6.710Kb -
334 pages
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.
1,100Kb - 95 pages
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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.
6.785Kb - 257
pages
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.
- 9 pages
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.
769Kb - 121 pages
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.
1.867Kb -
150 pages
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.
4.930Kb - 172
pages
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.
2,611Kb -
580 pages
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.
224Kb - 50 pages
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.
2,387Kb - 323 pages
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. .
116Kb -
19 pages
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