World Water Day: Water for Peace
The universality of human rights starts at the local level!
The municipalities of Quilmes, Almirante Brown, Avellaneda, Florencio Varela and Presidente Perón are mobilising for the right to water sanitation in the face of floods.
The global challenge: Water is a vital source for the development of communities but it can also present risks exacerbated by the consequences of climate change. The climate crisis is leading to increased hazards related to the exacerbation of desertification and floods.
Water-related disasters have dominated the list of disasters over the past 50 years and account for 70 per cent of all natural disaster-related deaths.
While the threat is considerable, rapid urbanisation in flood-prone areas and lack of investment in water management services and infrastructure is likely to generate even greater socio-environmental damage with severe humanitarian costs to be satiated.
The local challenge: In the Metropolitan Area of the Province of Buenos Aires (AMBA), the San Francisco, Las Piedras and Santo Domingo streams form the natural drainage of an area of approximately 178Km2 in the municipalities of Presidente Perón, Almirante Brown, Florencio Varela, Quilmes and Avellaneda, in one of the most densely populated regions of the country, which is in the midst of a demographic expansion.
In this context, as a result of the climate crisis and accelerated urbanisation, floods are becoming increasingly frequent in this area, threatening the lives, health and homes of more than a million citizens, mainly affecting the most vulnerable populations living along the banks of the streams in the peripheral neighbourhoods of these districts.
This generates enormous social damage as it affects the development of a dignified life in cities, highlighting the enormous territorial inequality and the limited economic resources available to local governments in terms of urbanisation, management and water sanitation capacities.
In this sense, the national government currently conceives water in mercantile terms, promoting laws that even threaten to privatise public access to water. For this reason, the decision not to continue financing water works has prompted local governments to seek alternative solutions that respond to the demands of their communities.
What are the local governments doing? The local governments of Quilmes, Avellaneda, Presidente Perón, Almirante Brown and Florencio Varela are promoting provincial legislation for the creation of the San Francisco-Las Piedras Stream Water Basin Committee, with the aim of obtaining external financing to carry out works to prevent flooding in the southern conurbation.
Likewise, a democratic management of water resources is being promoted, in the aspects of sanitation and environmental control, with a committee led by provincial and municipal representatives and the integration of an Advisory Council with representatives of users, intermediate entities, study and research centres and non-governmental organisations.
In this sense, in the framework of the World Water Day, the Municipalities of the AMBA join in a collective action to guarantee the human right to water sanitation. An efficient management of water resources with a democratic, multilevel governance that incorporates the participation of different stakeholders is essential, understanding that investment in services and works is the fundamental pillar to generate welfare in local communities.
"In the face of an insensitive national government to the suffering of our neighbours in every flood, the mayors of the conurbation have the responsibility to guarantee the right to water sanitation works in our territories. The consequences of the climate crisis affect us all, but in an unequal way; we must start with the most vulnerable neighbourhoods until we reach everyone."