The first Community-Based Watershed Stewardship (CBWS) training workshops were held in Argentina in December of 2013. This was in response to several years of communications between Global Water Watch (GWW) and Argentinean partners that resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in 2013 between GWW and the Environmental Protection Agency of the Santa Fe Province in Argentina (SMA). Initial goals include the establishment of a citizen-based water monitoring program in the Río Carcarañá. This river and its watershed are of great importance to Argentina and was added to the Natural Protected Areas system (Dcto. Pcial. 1579) in 2012; and the SMA as well as residents have increased interest in its protection. The river begins in the neighbor province of Córdoba, flows into Santa Fe and the Coronda river before empties into the great Paraná river.

The three-day CBWS workshop with certification in bacteriological and water chemistry monitoring was conducted for 25 people that plan to conduct water chemistry monitoring in at least eight sites in the Carcarañá River, two in each one of the participating communities, and identify additional sites in 2014 as needed. Bacteriological monitoring will wait until monitoring supplies are secured and more likely provided by the Secretary of Environment. Click here to read more about this project.