Private Enterprise and Financial Markets > Environment > Integrated Water Resources Management
Water Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean: Issues and Options
By Orlando San Martin (04/02, En)
Water resources contribution to growth and development
The first chapter of this paper shows how important the contribution of water resources is to sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The bottom line, and pressing challenge for water resources in the new millennium, is to be able to actively contribute to the region?s sustainable development. In this context, water is not only an environmental asset, but also a key economic resource. When properly managed, water resources are powerful tools for development. This simple and important principle ought to guide the financing efforts in the water resource sector in LAC, by governments, international development banks and other financial institutions.
Challenges for development and water management
Water resources and all activities depending on water face a diverse set of problems and challenges in the region. Being a finite (limited) resource, water and freshwater ecosystems are under pressure by different users and increasing demands to satisfy different sector needs and aspirations, and therefore, need to be protected.
For presentation purposes, the paper groups the problems and challenges facing water resources in LAC into the following categories:
- Social challenges
- Economic challenges
- Financial challenges
- Environmental challenges
- Institutional challenges
Root causes of problems
It is emphasized that at the root of the immediate water resources problems and their consequences in LAC, there are four main causes:
- lack of understanding of the uniqueness or integral character of the water resource and its low degree of substitution;
- heterogeneity in terms of quantity, quality and availability of the resource;
- insufficient consideration of the economic value of the resource; and, aggravating this situation
- the low levels of awareness about water resource problems among the general public, which in turn results in a lack of political commitment among decision makers to take action on these matters.
Current responses
Nevertheless, several efforts and responses are taking place to tackle water resource problems in the region. The main approaches and instruments being used for water resource development and management are grouped into four categories, as follows:
- reforming the water sector, which includes other water-related sectors, e.g. irrigated agriculture, energy, tourism, etc. These reforms include, but are not limited to, promoting private sector participation, economic valuation of water goods and services, and cost recovery;
- integrated approaches to water resource management;
- watershed-based planning and management; and
- international cooperation in international river basins.
In practice, the main problems being faced within the water resources sector are complex, and originate in a mixture of different challenges, demanding therefore an "approach-mix" for their successful solution.
It is posed that the following key principles should guide water related financing interventions in LAC:
- consistency with development objectives;
- consistency in the use and timing of instruments;
- incentive-based promotion of changes; and
- coordination and collaboration among related institutions.
The financial interventions in water resources should not lose sight of the root causes of the immediate problems and their consequences and should structure their contributions accordingly. Understandably, much effort has been devoted in the past to overcoming some of the most severe problems facing the water resources sector. It is posed that concentrating efforts solely on the immediate problems and their consequences and not on their roots is not sufficient to solve them. On the other hand, governments cannot concentrate only on the root causes ignoring the urging needs of those suffering the consequences. Therefore, a two-tier approach should be sought: attacking root causes while avoiding and reducing the negative impacts of the consequences, as has been proposed, among others, by the Inter-American Development Bank?s (IDB) strategy on integrated water resources management.
Last updated: 03/21/07
