Strategic actions and prospective hydrodiplomacy in the context of transboundary waters

Cienfuegos B.C.G.; Torres F.E.A. · Developments and Approaches in Science Diplomacy: Latin America and the Caribbean (2024) · DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-2746-3.ch008

Resumen

More than 60% of the world's flow of fresh water is shared, of the 33 countries that make up the Latin American and Caribbean region, 22 share watercourses, lakes and aquifers. The basin is considered the ideal unit to carry out the sustainable management of water resources, that contributes to territorial management and social balance at the local, national and cross-border level. The Puyango-Tumbes river basin (Peru-Ecuador) it constitutes one of the most important binational basins in South America. As the quality of water degrades or the available quantity of water has to meet increasing demands, competition among water users intensifies; nowhere is this situation more destabilizing than in river basins that cross political borders. The most critical situation began in 1980s due to mining activity in Portovelo and Zaruma area, with the presence of informal companies that were later relocated to the Calera and Amarillo rivers, the main tributaries of the Puyango-Tumbes river, dumping the mining effluents there, focusing the contamination problem and compromising the populations settled downstream of the basin. This water source presents a serious environmental problem. On the one hand, it is the common recipient of mining effluents and on the other hand of wastewater, urban solid waste and contamination from the excessive use of agrochemicals in the agricultural sector. In this context, it is required to consolidate water security through diplomacy and geopolitics based on strengthening hydrodiplomacy, considering the institutional frameworks for governance in transboundary watercourses and the fundamental principles of international water law.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de Tumbes