Current Issues and Aims for the Future

• Systemic actions or interventions in the hydrographic region of the Amazon should consider the following priorities:
• Establish directives and implement actions aimed at containing uncontrolled deforestation;
• Discipline the expansion of the agricultural boundaries, especially in the basins of the Madeira, Tapajós and Xingu rivers;
• Strimulate the development of sustainable practices, adapted to the environmental anomalies of the region; including family farming, cattle farming, agro-industry, pisciculture and extractivism;
• Implement programs to recuperate degraded areas, particularly in areas which have been mined;
• Expand and improve river transportation, making better use of the 25,000 km of navigable waterways;
• Improve the socio-economic indicators (GDP, HDI, Infant Mortality);
• Improve the basic sanitation in the state capitals and main urban centers, through the expansion or implementation of domestic and industrial wastewater treatment systems, as well as treatment and final disposal of solid waste residues.
• Estimates of the growth of the population within the basin show that by the year 2020, it should reach 9.6 million inhabitants, with an average demographic density of 2.5 inhabitants/km². The distribution of the population will continue to be uneven, more concentrated along the lower and mid sections of the Amazon river (Manaus). The tendency is that, in 2020, water demand in the region will still be less than 2% of the water availability of the basin, and as such no conflicts between the availability and use of water are foreseen.