SOUTH AMERICA: Mercosur to Take Control of Huge Groundwater Reserve

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 22 2004 (IPS) - In line with warnings by civil society groups of the risk of losing control over the Guaraní aquifer, South America’s Mercosur trade bloc has resolved to take the reins of the huge groundwater reserve. But activists believe the response has come too late.

The latest summit of Mercosur (Southern Common Market) leaders, held Jul. 8 in the northeastern Argentine city of Puerto Iguazú, decided to create a high-level working group to discuss how to guarantee the bloc’s rights over the enormous groundwater reserve shared by the four full member nations: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

At the summit, Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa said the four countries are "perfectly clear" on the importance of the aquifer and warned that "if Mercosur does not make haste, other regions could hurry and push us into a situation that would weigh heavily on our interests."

The working group is being created to "reaffirm our sovereignty" over the aquifer, in the face of "international theories" that view water as "a common resource of humanity," Uruguayan under-secretary of Foreign Affairs, William Ehlers, told IPS.

"No one would say oil or gas are a patrimony of humanity, nor do we accept that water can be considered a common resource shared by all. That is why we want to reaffirm that the aquifer is ours, and we are going to take steps towards joint and sustainable management," said the official.

An aquifer is a water-bearing stratum of permeable rock, sand or gravel. The Guaraní is actually a system of aquifers, with a total surface extension of approximately 1.2 million square km: 840,000 sq km in southwestern Brazil, 225,000 sq km in northeastern Argentina, 71,700 sq km in southeastern Paraguay and 58,500 sq km in Uruguay, with an estimated 37,000 cubic km of water.

A plan to assess the aquifer’s potential was already launched a year ago. The Project for the Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of the Guaraní Aquifer System took four years to design by scientists, environmental activists and government experts from each Mercosur nation. Funding was provided by the World Bank-administered Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Although the project was an initiative of the governments, which sought financial support and chose the Organisation of American States (OAS) to carry it out, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had already raised the alarm on alleged attempts by the World Bank and the United States to get a foothold in the aquifer.

In fact, some groups suggested U.S. allegations of the existence of "dormant terrorist cells" in the tri-border area between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay were merely a cover for the U.S. interest in establishing a military presence in the area to gain control over the aquifer.

The Mercosur countries and the general secretariat of the joint project have repeatedly and categorically denied any conspiracy between Washington and multilateral funders to gain control over the aquifer.

Nonetheless, the Mercosur presidents meeting in Puerto Iguazú – which is located near the tri-border region – decided to clarify the situation, creating the high-level working group in order to establish their authority over the aquifer and resolve issues involving its use.

Far from rejecting the initiative, the secretary general of the joint project, Luiz Amore from Brazil, welcomed the interest expressed by the presidents at the summit, and told IPS a resolution would be adopted to support the high-level group, offering technical information and funding.

"This shows that the countries that own the resource are interested in gaining a better understanding of the aquifer in order to add it to their agenda of areas to administer," said Amore. "There is no conflict" between the joint preservation project and the new group, he added, as their efforts will be complementary.

The programme coordinated by Amore works on technical issues while the Mercosur-designated jurists are to discuss the principles and guidelines guaranteeing the member countries’ rights over the aquifer. "They are initiatives that support each other to reach the same goal," he said.

Amore acknowledged the international debate on water, between those who see it as a common heritage of humanity and those who consider it a national resource belonging to each country. There is also disagreement over whether water is a market commodity or a social and cultural asset for the public good.

Elsa Bruzzone, a historian and expert in defence issues with CEMIDA – an Argentine pro-democracy group of retired members of the military – told IPS that water must be considered "a social asset, and at the same time a strategic resource which forms part of the patrimony of each country."

"When people begin to talk about water as a common patrimony of humanity, that is because the Group of Seven (richest countries), and especially the United States, have got their eyes on this resource," said Bruzzone.

Bruzzone was invited to discussions of the aquifer at the Jun. 25-27 Tri-Border Region Social Forum, part of the World Social Forum global movement.

The forum was attended by 1,300 people from NGOs in the subregion to reject the alleged U.S. attempts to establish a military presence in the border region, and to raise awareness on the strategic value of the Guaraní aquifer.

The forum sent a letter to the Mercosur summit expressing its "concern" over growing exploitation of natural resources in the region, and "fundamentally the Guaraní aquifer, one of the biggest reserves of underground water in the world."

The official response supported the concerns expressed by the NGOs. However, Bruzzone remained sceptical when consulted by IPS. "Bielsa’s statements sound very nice, but they have come too late, because the World Bank-funded project is already underway," she said.

In her opinion, the only way to gain real control over the aquifer is for the Mercosur nations to return the almost 27 million dollars provided by GEF and carry out their own independent study of the true potential of the groundwater reserve.

Bruzzone said the Mercosur nations should go beyond mere words and take control of the project as soon as possible. If they do not, they risk passing the resources over "to humanity," which she believes is merely a vague way of alluding to the interests of powerful countries.