6 July 2012: The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) and the Government of Brazil formally launched ACTO’s “Amazonas Project: Regional Action on Water Resources,” to promote technical cooperation regarding the Amazon River Basin between the eight ACTO member countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

The Project was launched on 6 July 2012, in Brasilia, Brazil, in a signing ceremony held at the headquarters of Brazil’s National Water Agency (ANA), with Secretary-General Robby Ramlakam signing for ACTO and the Director of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), Marcos Farani, ANA Director-President Vicente Andreu, and Chief of the Americas Division of the Foreign Ministry, Clemente Baena Soares, on behalf of the Brazilian Government.

The Project will be funded by the Brazilian Government for R$2 million through 2014, and will be coordinated on the technical side by ANA. The chief focus of the Project will be training and capacity building, through courses, seminars and workshops with the member countries’ water authorities, and promotion of information exchange regarding the Amazon River Basin in such areas as flow mediation techniques, water quality, sedimentation, water resources management, water rights and hydrological phenomena. The Project also intends to create a basin monitoring network.

According to the ANA, the Amazon River Basin involves an area of more than six million square kilometers, 63% of which is within Brazilian territory. Another 17% lies in Peru, 11% in Bolivia, 5.8% in Colombia, 2.2% in Ecuador, 0.7% in Venezuela and 0.2% in Guyana. [ACTO Press Release (in Portuguese)] [ANA Press Release (in Portuguese)]