Guaraní - Results

GEF IDS: 974

Ecosystem
Groundwater

Scale
Regional

Information sources
IWC6 Results Note (2011)

Key Basin Project Results
1. One of the main outcomes of the Project is the establishment of the institutional mechanism to coordinate the activities of the four countries in the management of Guarani Aquifer System (GAS) that did not exist before the Project. The Project also extended this new culture of cooperation among specialists, universities and institutions in the four countries.
2. Technical and scientific studies conducted through the Project concluded that lateral movement of groundwater in the GAS is very slow and impacts from over pumping and pollution are highly localized. Therefore, management of the aquifer is essentially a local set of activities. The four countries now have a good understanding and feel much more confident to develop and manage the aquifer individually without worrying about wide-ranging regional/transboundary impacts. It would have been very difficult to get to this point and to have this shared understanding without having a regional project.
3. As a preventive project, the key performance indicators basically targeted the reduction of future risks:
(i) pollution risks diminished or controlled;
(ii) overdraft risks diminished or stabilized;
(iii) future inter-country groundwater conflicts risk diminished; and
(iv) future mitigation and stabilization costs reduced.