The Guarani Aquifer: a little known water resource in South America gets a voice
The Guarani Aquifer in South America is a huge underground reservoir that lies under Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, covering an area of land the size of Texas and California combined.
The aquifer contains enough fresh water to sustain the world’s population for 200 years, and as water shortages affect us all in the future, the Guarani Aquifer could be a lifeline for millions. But increased commercial interest in the aquifer’s water, and political bickering between the four countries that share it, is threatening this huge resource.
“The Guarani system is a striking example of an international water body threatened by environmental degradation,” says Karin Kemper, a water resources specialist with the World Bank. “Without better management, the aquifer is likely to suffer from pollution and rapid depletion. Uncontrolled exploitation could reduce it from a strategic water reserve to a degraded resource that is a focus of conflict in the region.”
It’s a complex story with many overlapping strands that call to the global as well as local water situation. The story combines the fight between the indigenous Guarani people and the corporations who are using the aquifer’s cheap water supply, climate change and a bit of conspiracy theory (George W Bush owns a huge ranch on the aquifer which some activists are interpreting as an American neo-imperialist threat to South America’s sovereignty). There’s even a celebrity angle to the story: the James Bond movie, The Quantum of Solace, despite being set in Bolivia, is allegedly based on the Guarani Aquifer.
But this strategically important water resource has barely received a second glance in the mainstream media. That is why a small team and myself have formed The Guarani Project, and we are going down to South America for three months this summer to start piecing together the complex puzzle of the Guarani Aquifer to ultimately produce a documentary.
We strongly believe that by highlighting the plight of the Guarani Aquifer we can encourage people to conserve this water resource for future generations. The longer this story remains untold the higher the risks to the Guarani Aquifer and, by continuation, us all.
blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/04/13/the-guarani-aquifer-a-little-known-water-resource-in-south-america-gets-a-voice/
Little is known about the intentions of the Bush Family and the huge amount of land they purchased in Paraguay. It’s surprising how little has been written about it which is why you generally find vague references to it in items like this from Columbia University without much more.
I believe that they made a big land grab because they know what chaos is coming in the future and this would make an excellent place to set up shop as water barons. Hell, I can even see them resurrecting some form of neo-feudalism to have people work the land for them.
Other notes of interest:
- The deal was reportedly brokered in secret with Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte by Jenna Bush while George Bush was still the President of the United States.
- It is near the fairly new U.S. Military base Mariscal Estigarribia. It’s important to note that at around the time of the sale the Paraguayan Senate voted to “grant U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction.” Immediately afterward, 500 heavily armed U.S. troops arrived with various planes, choppers and land vehicles. The airforce base is larger than the airport in the capital city of Asuncion. More
- The Chaco region also sits on top of huge oil and natural gas reserves which have been described as some of the largest in the world with the government claiming there are 14bn cubic liters.
- Water covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface and only 2.5 percent of that is fresh with much of it being locked up in glaciers and other areas which are impractical for easy access. More:
It is said that this vast underground reservoir could supply fresh drinking water to the world for 200 years. However, at closer inspection, if the world population were to stay at an equilibrium of about 6.96 billion, not even taking into account that babies need less water than grown adults, this figure reaches 1600 years, allowing about 9 liters per day per person.
Wars over oil are old news, get ready for those future water wars
Just read this: www.revelacionesmarianas.com/english.htm
Stated how WW3 will be about possession of water.
h/t jasenlee
Asset forfeiture is a global possibility. The citizens of the USSA own everything these regressive , toxic animals have purchased with their ill gotten gains ..all stolen and embezzled.. or the profits of illicit transactions of all manner. Take absolutely the shirt and shoes these freaks have ripped off of you..and then send em to the moon. Get them gone, after we recover their “loot.”