Latin America: good water management to resume growth

In the past few years, Latin America has achieved considerable advances in the area of water management, but it still needs to improve in order to guarantee safe and stable access to quality water and sanitation services to all its inhabitants, especially those in rural areas, small cities, and marginal areas in large cities. 

To achieve this, the countries of the region must commit to invest more in water security in coming years, which would also help invigorate the regional economies in order to overcome the current decelerating trend. It is estimated that an inefficient management of water and sanitation services may cause losses of up to 1 percent of GDP in some countries of the region. 

Following are Latin America's main challenges to enable a partnership between good water management and economic growth. 

• Advance on the road toward water security: It is necessary to guarantee the availability of water resources to reduce the vulnerability of people when facing the risks of extreme phenomena such as droughts or floods, and favor social and economic development. This objective is a challenge due to the process of climate change. This year,  Latin America is one of the regions most affected by the phenomenon of El Niño, so it is especially important to pay attention to the use of resources that are related to social and environmental sustainability. 

• Universalize the water and sanitation services: despite the fact that the region has shown important advances toward a comprehensive management of water, there are 34 million Latin Americans who still do not have access to improved water sources, and 112 million without access to sanitation. Countries must increase the level of coverage and the quality of these services to address the needs of human development, especially in small cities and rural areas, in addition to the informal areas in big cities, as the most vulnerable populations live there. 

• Improve the depuration processes of residual waters and urban drainage: to avoid the degradation of the environment it is essential to adequately incorporate these elements to the urban water cycle and increase the training of personnel in charge of improving the yield of the facilities. National programs are needed to progressively increase coverage of the treatment of sewage waters, through planning with a basin approach, and complementing these efforts with the development of management and maintenance skills. In addition, sewage waters may imply an important benefit when reutilizing the nutrients to benefit irrigation agriculture, or the energy use of biomass. 

• Develop hydroelectric potential: Latin America has 20 percent of the world's hydroelectric capacity, although it has  developed only one fourth of it. Hydroelectricity, one of the most economic sources of energy generation, may increase the production of energy in the region if countries make more efforts in planning and implementing projects, to have a better infrastructure that will enable the development of that potential. Environmental and social variables should be taken into consideration, as without them the promise of a great hydroelectric volume of renewable generation could be limited. 

• Increase the productivity of water in agriculture: it has been estimated that by 2050, the demand for food will grow by 60 percent, and Latin America is one of the two regions in the world that may expand its arable areas in the required proportion. In order to satisfy the increasing demand, the region will need to apply a careful combination of tools to close the agricultural yield gaps through intensification, increase of productivity by unit of water, expansion of irrigation where feasible, and reduction of residues and losses in the food chain. Agriculture is a key sector for regional socio-economic development: it represents 5 percent of GDP and generates 16 percent of the employment. 

To take advantage of these opportunities it is essential that the workers of the sector have the necessary training and knowledge. This includes a constant update of their skills to adapt to the new tools that technology makes available for technicians. CAF is making efforts to support the countries in the development and maintenance of these skills.