Julio López
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The largest reserve of fresh water in the world
Por translation: mark - Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004 at 9:31 PM

Tuesday 26th of October 2004 The importance of the Guaraní aquifer Never before has the importance of the Guaraní aquifer, that enormous reservoir of subterranean drinking water shared by Argentines, Brazilians, Paraguayans and Uruguayans, been more clear. Data provided by the UN, shows that by the years 2020 – 2030, a population of about 8.000.000.000 people, 7.000.000.000 children, women and men, inhabitants of this beautiful and mistreated planet will not have access to this resource.

The report sent by the Pentagon to the US government in February this year, notes that global warming is accelerating and producing devastating effects in the planet, the most important of which is the lack of drinking water in the near future. The report also suggests that the United States should be prepared and ready to seize this strategic resource, wherever it be found, when the moment arrives. It is important to remember that the United States withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol that regulates the emission of the gases responsible for global warming, in 2001, that for the treaty to take effect, it requires the approval of the countries that on the whole are responsible for 70% of that emission, and that, in the Special Conference of Hemispherical Security, celebrated in Monterrey, Mexico, in October 2003, the United States itself refused to sign resolutions relating to the protection of the environment.

According to the OAS (the Organisation of American States), the Guaraní is the largest aquifer in the world today. It seems that the investigations tend to confirm the projections already carried out. We know that a rational exploitation of the aquifer would be around 80 annual cubic kilometers (each cubic kilometer equals to a trillion liters of water, that is to say a one with twelve zeros), and that this quantity, would give drinking water to 720.000.000 of people, based on 300 liters per day per person. The population of Our America is 550.000.000. This means that we would be able to provide water for all , and that the surplus, along with what we contributed of our own resources, could be utilized to quench the thirst of our sister (1) peoples of the Third World. We would transform the deserts into oases, we would develop economically and our peoples would enjoy good health.

For this to be possible, our peoples must recuperate the Project which sadly, is found in the hands of the World Bank due to the decisions of those who governed us during the nineties. But nothing is irreversible. Ultimately it’s a matter of deciding if drinking water is a fundamental human right for life and health, a social good, a good of our peoples, or if, as the First World and the economic and financial international agencies claim, it is an object, merchandise, subject to the laws of supply and demand of the market. And from there, the battle lines are drawn: in favor of life, or against it.

Our strategic resources should be in our hands and must be used (2) in favour of our needs and interests. The defense of our national patrimonies (3) is indispensable for our survival and identity as peoples and nations. It is in our hands to revert the situation as Manuel Ugarte wrote in 1923 “Peoples that wait for their life or their future to come from a legal abstraction or the will of others are sacrificed before their time.”

Special contribution: PROFESORA ELSA M BRUZZON from CEMIDA

(1) pueblos hermanos. Here the adjective hermano/a which can mean both brother and sister is in its masculine form because it is describing pueblo, people. I have chosen sister as a translation, but it could be both.
(2) Explotados. This can translate to both exploited and used, I have chosen the latter as I feel it has more positive connotations which seems more appropriate.
(3) Patrimonies. There is no easy translation for this, but the word carries a sense of what belongs to a people or nation. It comes close to national inheritance.

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