Conflits autour de l’eau guarani

Geopolitics
Conflicts around the Guarani Aquifer

The wealth of a country is going to be measured soon by the resources it owns, and in particular the water it owns. The lack of water will be in a very close future the first war cause, the ownership of water in our actual society will be soon an inestimable trophy. The interstate relations are nowadaysarticulated around the ownership of some resources considered like vital (water…) This is what constitutes the relative power, independence or the simple existence of country, the one which control water can easily control the international economy. There are many examples, like the coal, the steel, and naturally the oil. It is also the case of the water, often called “blue gold”. If the planetdoesn’t miss water, we miss drinking water. Indeed, today, 1/5th of the population hasn’t any access to drinking water, because of the stain of the water, leading to important human and political issues.

An important example of this issues is a region in the south of America called the “Triple Frontiers”, and which group together Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The Triple Frontier is atri-border area along the junction of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, where the Iguazu and the Parana rivers converge. The water in this region is located on 1 195 700 square kilometers : 70 % is located on the Brazilian territory, 19% in Argentina, 6% in Paraguay and 5% in Uruguay. This water could serve for approximatively 360 million people. This system could satisfy until 21 % of the demand ofthe industry in these four countries in 2025, according to a report of the UNO. At an international level, this region is considered like the biggest water reserve.

After the attacks of September 11th in the United States, many Americans were very suspicious about the “Triple Frontiers”, and said that there were units and training camps of the extremist group Hezbollah and Hamas, and evenAl-Qaïda.

An official of the US Government suggested to the Pentagon to launch an attack in South America in order to « surprise the terrorists ». They even pressed the Paraguayan government to accept the american military presence in the country. The United States said themselves worried by the possibility that the region were a source of extremist groups.

In front of this militarization of theregion, the countries concerned try to organize themselves by organizing forums, like the First Social Forum of the Triple Frontiers in Argentina in 2004, in order to find some solutions about the presence of the United States and a possible presence of terrorism in the Guarani Region. United States are obviously very interested about the resources, and the “blue gold”, even if they weren’tconcerned about the region until now. And it is not the first time that United States try to implant themselves in the South of America in order to control the resources : few years ago, the first country which felt the danger of the new interventionism was Brazil. Through the Amazonia Plan, United States tried to establish in the Amazonian region to control the resources of water. Later, the UnitedStates succeeded in establishing a military base in Alcántara. Nevertheless, Bazil quickly reacted : it created a military line around the border, the Monitoring system of Amazonia, the system of protection of the Amazonia, transferred its capital in the center of Amazonia, and closed the military base in Alcantara in order to assure its sovereignty.

The United States have already set up a systemin order to evaluate the scale of the Acuaifero Guarani, and assure it sustainable exploitation. They are helped by the World Bank, the Organization of the United States, and dedicated a budget of 26 760 000 dollars. The unsaid project is obliviously to keep the power on the “Triple Frontiers”, and to control the exploitation of this resources.

But we just have to ask the question : why did…