Transboundary water governance in South America

Abstract

The chapter explores the dynamics of conflict and cooperation in the La Plata River basin to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of transboundary water governance in South America. In the 1960s the outcome of this dynamic was the setting up of basin institutional framework that is unique for the governance of some issues involved in transboundary waters as cooperation in energy integration and navigation. The La Plata basin is today again a site of regional politics, with the emergence of socio-environmental conflicts stemming from bottom up social resistances to top-down decision making focuses on the large scale infrastructure regional integration under the IIRSA initiative.