Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in a complex hydrological system such as the Amazon Basin relies heavily on environmental monitoring to protect human health and the environment in general. Monitoring programs are also essential to provide the information needed for planning, decision making, and operational water management at local, national, and transboundary scales.

To provide fundamental support to IWRM in the region, the Amazon Basin Project envisages the conceptualization, consolidation and operation of a series of interrelated, compatible, operational and consensual systems that will monitor groundwater, glaciers and vulnerable ecosystems throughout the Amazon Basin. Monitoring actions to strengthen IWRM within the framework of the Amazon Basin Project also include an erosion and sediment transport program and training in the management and operation of monitoring systems.

The monitoring data will make up the Integrated Water Resources Monitoring System and will be available in the Amazon Regional Observatory (ORA) of ACTO through the Integrated Regional Information Platform on IWRM in the Amazon BasinThe data will be made available to public and private institutions and to the general public.

Amazon Regional Observatory

The ORA is an Amazon Information Reference Center of ACTO, created in 2021 to facilitate the flow and exchange of information between institutions, government authorities, the scientific community, academia and civil society in the Amazon countries.

Through the Amazon Hydrological Network (RHA), the Water Quality Network (RCA) and the HYBAM Network, ORA monitors water quantity and extreme hydroclimatic events as well as water quality, supporting countries in making decisions to prevent the consequences of climatic phenomena, as well as diseases and pollution of the river environment, among others.

The data collected by the ORA are available on a computer platform hosted on the ACTO web portal and come from various governmental entities of ACTO Member Countries and also from regional and international organizations that have a high level of recognition for their work in the Amazon Region, such as the HYBAM Network and the WMO Hydrological Observing System (WHOS) project of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Visit the Amazon Regional Observatory (ORA)

Commitments to monitoring actions in the Declaration of Belém

Meeting at the Amazon Summit in Belém do Pará, Brazil, on August 8 and 9, 2023, the presidents and representatives of ACTO Member Countries pledged to strengthen joint actions for hydrometeorological monitoring, warning and surveillance of water quality for human consumption in the region. Among the paragraphs of the Belém Declaration dedicated to water resources is the objective of guaranteeing the quantity and quality of water in the Amazon Basin for this and future generations.

To meet these objectives, the countries undertook to strengthen cooperation and harmonization of integrated meteorological monitoring and warning systems, promoting the exchange of experiences, information and knowledge among them, improving national monitoring capacities for the generation of warnings on environmental risks, human health, disasters and extreme hydrometeorological events. In this way, they will be able to act in the prevention, management and mitigation of the impacts of natural disasters, the effects of climate change and the fight against hunger.

The commitment to strengthen actions to monitor the quality of water for human consumption includes joint technical-scientific studies and research on exposure to mercury and other hazardous substances derived from mining, particularly when indigenous peoples and local and traditional communities are affected. In addition, the countries intend to carry out prevention and remediation activities, as well as strengthen international and regional cooperation in the fight against illegal mining, illicit trafficking and other related crimes.

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