On the second day of meetings, the ambassadors and representatives of the ACTO Member Countries held an important meeting with the IDB Mission, on the progress of the joint work agenda ACTO and IDB, on the subject of water resources.
The advances of technical cooperation were presented, such as the Multisectoral Nexus Study on the relationship between Water, Food and Energy for the Amazon Basin and the Regional Action Plan for Drinking Water, Basic Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. In addition, the achievements of the Amazon Regional Observatory (ARO) and its modules were announced.
According to the head of the IDB’s Water and Sanitation Division, Sergio Campos, it is important to work on the Nexus issue to achieve comprehensive sustainable development. “That is why we are working on a transboundary waters initiative where the first thing we have to strengthen is governance,” he highlighted.
He also explained that governance has to be different because climate change imposes it and because water resources are transboundary. “It is important to have good planning, good management and the ACTO, in this case, has made important advances,” he added.
According to the statement of ACTO’s Secretary General, Alexandra Moreira, the IDB works in all the Amazonian countries with a particular agenda in water, sanitation and solid waste. “For this reason, it is an ally that could definitely bring us financing, but also innovation, technology and generation of greater capacity,” she argued.
Following up on the agenda, we presented two important projects that ACTO and the IDB are preparing and the financing proposals that will be submitted to the GEF and the Green Climate Fund. The first project concerns the management of the groundwater aquifer system within the Amazon region and the second on improving climate resilience and water management in the Amazon basin.
According to Sergio Campos, we are on the verge of achieving unprecedented funding for the Amazon. “It is important that we continue to work on strengthening, knowledge planning and mainly to strengthen the governance of ACTO, so that it becomes an institution of world reference in the management of transboundary basins,” he said.
Campos also recalled that the strengthening of ACTO is important and the support of the ambassadors is fundamental. “It is through you that we manage to reach the different institutions within your countries, whose support will be necessary to be able to navigate this funding space that is a unique window being opened for the Amazon Region” he concluded.
