President calls for protection of Guiana Shield at World Water Forum

President David Granger during his speech at the 8th World Water Forum in Brazil called for the Forum to take action to protect and preserve the Guiana Shield as a vital source of the world’s freshwater reserves.

Granger said that Guyana, a small state, is part of the Guiana Shield – an area spread over 2.7 million km² – making it bigger than Greenland.  The ‘Shield’ is a zone which encompasses parts of Brazil, Colombia and all of French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and parts of Venezuela. The ‘Shield’, described as the “lungs of the Earth” and the “greenhouse of the world” is a global resource because of the environmental services it provides.

The ‘Shield’ is vital to global water security because it contains 15 per cent of the world’s freshwater resources. The rivers of the Guiana Shield discharge an average of 2,792 km³ (cubic kilometers) of water annually, with one of the highest specific discharge rates for a zone of that size.

According to the President, the adverse effects of climate change – droughts, flooding, rising sea levels and extreme weather events – are exacerbating water quality and environmental security.

He posited that the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has forecasted that climate change will result in reduced surface and ground water in most sub-tropical regions.

Moreover, the Guyanese leader noted that “the protection of the world’s freshwater sources, therefore, is essential to global water security.  This World Water Forum is encouraged to continue to introduce initiatives to protect these resources, particularly the rivers of the Guiana Shield.”

As such, President Granger advanced “a three-point action agenda to enhance: Commitment to pay continuous attention and unceasing action, not only to occasional conferences; Collaboration among states, especially neighbours which share the waters of rivers; and Conservation of water resources and the protection of the environment everywhere in order to maintain the integrity of the earth’s rivers and lakes.”

“At stake is nothing less than humanity itself” he noted while outlining that “the Cooperative Republic of Guyana wishes every success to the 8^th World Water Forum.”

The World Water Forum is described as the world’s biggest water-related event and is organised by the World Water Council.

Its mission is “to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels, to facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all life”.