In April 2018, the Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs circulated a press release to announce that the government has officially ratified the Guaraní Aquifer System (Sistema Aquífero Guaraní [SAG]) agreement. This means that all four countries that share the aquifer have now ratified the agreement, and that the agreement enters into force.
Guaraní Aquifer Agreement
The Guaraní Aquifer System traverses Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, and is the world’s second-largest known freshwater reservoir.
Building upon past governance activities of OAS (Organization of American States) and MERCOSUR (Common Market of the South), the four countries adopted the 2010 Guaraní Aquifer Agreement. At the time, being one of the two legally-binding agreements that holistically govern a transboundary aquifer, with the other one being the Genevese Convention, this already was a historic moment. After Argentina and Uruguay ratified the agreement in the same year, Brazil later did the same. Now that Paraguay has ratified the agreement as well, it can enter into force.