Experience and Role of the Organization of American States in Transboundary River Basin Management in Latin America

Abstract

The governments of the American states recognized the importance of the integrated management of water resources when they approved the Action Plan for Sustainable Development of the Americas at the Summit of the Americas for Sustainable Development (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, December 2001), thus giving a new official thrust to this issue. The heads of state and presidents of the American countries delegated to the Organization of American States (OAS) General Secretariat the responsibility for supervising this action plan. In order to do so, the General Secretariat has made use of its comparative advantage in dealing with groups of countries in the Americas by working on the management of transboundary river basins. The Unit for Sustainable Development and Environment (USDE)¹ of the OAS supports specific agreements that bring together different countries with similar objectives to work together in the management of the key transboundary basins, sharing experiences and supporting the development of national and regional policies. In this chapter, I describe some of the activities of the OAS in support of transboundary water resources management in the Americas.