By Fernando Vilella in collaboration with Alejandro Pannunzio.
22 March is World Water Day and in 2022 the theme is groundwater - the water we don't see! Let's make it visible, let's protect all water sources, let's avoid its pollution, let's use it efficiently without wasting it.
One example is the Guarani Aquifer, a gigantic natural freshwater reservoir that extends beneath the surface of parts of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. It is one of the largest known freshwater reserves on Earth. In terms of volume, it is the third largest in the world. It covers 1 190 000 km², a 19% in Argentina, with a volume of approximately 55 000 km³, a thickness of between 50 and 800 m and a maximum depth of approximately 1800 m. Potential use is estimated at around 40/50 km³ per year. To get a magnitude of what this represents, the total volume is the surface area of CABA and a depth of 272 km, (272,000 metres) or the total of the province of Buenos Aires and a depth of 179 metres. Gigantic. This is why Alejandro Pannunzio says that the Guarani Aquifer is to water resources what Vaca Muerta is to Argentine gas.
Water is a critical element for the survival of all living organisms on Earth. The fresh portion is vital and limited for all terrestrial organisms, being only 2.5-2.75 % of the total, of which 1.75-2 % (70 % of the total) is frozen in glaciers, ice and snow, 0.7-0.8 % (28% of the total) is fresh groundwater and less than 0.01 % of the total is surface water (0.4%) found in lakes, swamps and rivers.
Agriculture uses 70 % of the world's freshwater. The bioeconomy is a response to climate change and is a development model, with water being a basic input for the living cow, whether as an input for photosynthesis or drinking water for animals.
In wetlands, the Rio de la Plata alone has a flow of 20 million litres per second, equivalent to approximately 250 litres of water per inhabitant of the planet per day, which is salinised without any use. Only a third of our territory is humid and this is where most of the extensive grain and meat production takes place; these are areas that can be irrigated with supplementary irrigation. The drier areas will suffer more intensely from the effects of global climate change and will have to improve their irrigation efficiency, even though high quality water is available in Cuyo and the Patagonian Valleys.
Access to safe drinking water is a fundamental right to life that is unmet for one third of the global population. In Argentina, the distribution of drinking water through pipes began in Buenos Aires after the cholera epidemic that started in La Boca in 1867. In 1871 the yellow fever epidemic occurred with a mortality rate of 11 % of the population of Buenos Aires. Distributed water and sewers were the answer that many Argentines are still waiting for.
We have abundant water resources in our country, we must use them efficiently to:
1) ensure water and sanitation
2) regional development,
3) stabilising and increasing crop yields
4) to increase the productivity of water, preserving its qualities and avoiding its pollution
Argentina has developed extensive rainfed (non-irrigated) production systems with very low environmental impact manifested in their low carbon and water footprints.
In our country, out of a potential use of irrigation estimated at 6 million ha, according to the 2018 agricultural census, there are 36,296 units under irrigation with a surface area of 1.39 million ha and an average of 38 ha per property. The low development of irrigation is due to the lack of financial support and a PLAN that would allow, as in Chile, to technify the systems, increase productivity, stabilise yields and, above all, distribute water more equitably.
At the national level, we can increase the area under irrigation by 6 million ha. If they were to receive 200 mm of supplementary irrigation, which would be satisfied with less than 5 % of available water resources, we would have an approximate marginal annual income of 12 million tons of grain which, at an average price of 300 dollars per ton, would mean an additional annual income from exports of 4.2 billion dollars.
How we value water determines how it is managed and shared. The value of water is much more than its price: water has an enormous and complex value for our homes, culture, health, education, economy and the integrity of our natural environment. . This need and scarcity points to the importance of caring for it and its management involves all actors at the same table.
There is a lot we can do in our homes, communities or any other area where we live. Let's start by educating our children to be the guardians and protectors of water, from which they will benefit in the future if they learn to take care of it and ration it in the right way.
#YoQuierounPlanparaMiPaís