Latin America; in English (pdf) - Transboundary Freshwater Dispute ...

Coast of Rio Paraguay in Asunción, Paraguay (on the northern Argentina, border with Paraguay). Photo credit: Rolando León.
The per capita availability of water in South
America averages 34,000 m 3 per year, which is
much greater than the world average of 6,800 m 3
and is the highest of all the continents (UNEP
2000). These numbers can be deceiving, however.
For example, the small country of Guyana, with
not even a million inhabitants, possesses
enough water for a country many dozens of times
its size. Guyana, as well as Suriname, has annual
water availability amounts of approximately
300,000 m 3 per capita; whereas Peru has a
yearly average of approximately 1,641 m 3 per
capita and is the only country below the world
average in the region (GWP-SAMTAC 1999).
And in Chile, which is far above the world
average, there are areas such as the Atacama
Desert in the north that are almost without any
water at all.
South America possesses 38 international
water basins that cover almost 60% of the
continent and where over 29%—more than
100 million inhabitants—of the population
resides (TFDD 2004). The amount of discharge
from those basins is 68% of the continent’s total
freshwater flow. Of the 10,565,900 km 2 of land
mass included in these international basins, the
Amazon, La Plata, and Orinoco River Basins
comprise over 92% of the territory within international
basins and 55% of the entire continent.
The other 8% is composed of the remaining 35
river basins. This disparity of having a few basins
with the majority of the water is one of the main
factors influencing the continent’s water regime.
The majority of the international river
basins in the region are not stressed in terms of
availability of water for agricultural, industrial,
and domestic consumption. With low population
densities, the Orinoco and Amazon basins clearly
have an overabundance of water for their rural
populations. Most of the other shared river basins
are above the 2000 m 3 per capita/year that is
deemed necessary for a “good standard of living
and sustainable economic growth” (Rebouças
1999). However, with various factors affecting
the region, it is projected that some of the
basins in the continent will face higher levels of
water stress than they are currently experiencing
(Map 4).
South America’s international basins are
highlighted by the Amazon River. Not only is the
Amazon Basin the largest in South America, but
it is the largest in the world. The basin covers
46 — Hydropolitical Vulnerability and Resilience along International Waters: Latin America and the Caribbean