Environmental Paradigm and Water Management at Lujan River Basin, Argentina

MINAVERRY, CLARA MARÍA; FERRO, MARIANO

Estocolmo

Congreso; World Water Week, 2018; 2018

Stockolm International Water Institute

Highlights This paper contributes to: 1. The evaluation of the effectiveness of legal-institutional mechanisms which are influenced by two interrelated approaches: the IWRM and the Ecosystem Approach, 2. To analyze ecosystem services valuations at Lujan River Basin, Argentina, and 3. To analyze the effectiveness of class actions in connection with water affectation. Introduction and objectives Pollution in the metropolitan basins of Greater Buenos Aires is the most important urban environmental problem in Argentina, and one of the most serious in the world. However, since the 1990s there have been important progresses in the institutionalization of the environmental paradigm. In this paper we analyze the level of effectiveness of these institutional advances, in connection with the application of two fundamental and interrelated approaches, for the implementation of the environmental paradigm, the IWRM and the ecosystem approach, in one of the metropolitan basins of Greater Buenos Aires: Lujan River Basin. Methodology approach A qualitative research was adopted, according to R. Ying?s case analysis method (2004) and the strategy of methodological triangulation: conducting interviews with experts and key informants; legal and jurisprudential analysis of ecosystem services, of public documents and of national newspapers. All the rules are examined at the municipal, provincial and national levels applicable to the Lujan River Basin, and all argentine court rulings referred to this case study. The methodology of legal hermeneutics was used for jurisprudential and normative analysis. Analysis and results The extremely complex legal-institutional context, which was conditioned by the fragmentation and normative overlap, the almost absence of the ecosystem approach in politics and law in the Province of Buenos Aires, the insufficiency of scientific knowledge or the use of the available, the lack of sufficient mechanisms of citizen participation, diagnosis and integrated management plans, the lack of procedural regulation of collective actions in environmental matters in Argentina, and the avoidance of environmental responsibilities by different players, constitute substantial obstacles for the implementation of the environmental paradigm in the Lujan River basin. We highlight a series of consequences of the aforementioned obstacles for the application of the environmental paradigm to our case study: the serious risk of one of the most biodiverse ecosystem, and with unique characteristics in the world: the Delta of the River of Plata, causing the increase of occurrence of floods; the deterioration of the archaeological and cultural heritage; causing adverse socio-environmental effects, including the lack of substantiation of environmental rights and obstructing access to drinking water and environmental sanitation of coastal populations. Conclusions and recommendation The empirical and bibliographic-documentary evidence analyzed shows that water policies at the level of the basin, in our case study, are deficient and have low standards of effectiveness, while policies focused around ecosystems are practically absent. We conclude that there is a need of coordination between the various jurisdictions, including the international one, as well as the conjunction between the management of river basin and of the ecosystems. Finally, we highlight an urgent need to incorporate the role of ecosystems recognized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in water policies in Argentina.