the lands required for the works and for lower income families living in flood prone areas in their immediate proximity. component 3) will finance works to protect important urban areas against flood effects. it will contain minor rehabilitation of existing schemes and would include fortification of flood defenses in geographic areas with strong economic activity and the greatest vulnerability to serious repeated flood damage. component 4) technical assistance would be provided for us$2.39 million (or 3.4 percent of project loan) to help implement the project. the inter-american development bank: in the mid-1990s, the government completed a comprehensive mr environmental management plan (emp) and received a us$250 million inter-american development bank (idb) loan to help finance implementation of the emp objectives. twelve years after the beginning of the project, the idb only disbursed us$10 million, and is only now committing another us$90 million for urgent clean-up activities (the remaining balance having been long ago reallocated). the government of argentina (goa) concluded that the lack of an adequate institutional and legal framework to coordinate the involvement of different government jurisdictions has been a major obstacle to implementing the emp. ramsar sites in argentina there are many wetlands of argentina that provide a range of functions. wetlands are key areas for drinking water, sanitation, agriculture and food, absorbing large water flows after heavy rainfall and glacial melt, and for providing water in periods of droughts. the ramsar convention on wetlands came into force in argentina on september 4, 1992. and there 19 sites designated as wetlands of international importance, with total surface area of 5,318,376 hectares (13 million acres). ramsar site: mar chiquita (the "little sea"). satellite image of tierra del fuego list of ramsar sites: bahía de samborombón bañados del río dulce y laguna de mar chiquita glaciar vinciguerra y turberas asociadas humedal laguna melincué humedales chaco jaaukanigás laguna blanca laguna de llancanelo mr laguna de los pozuelos lagunas altoandinas y puneñas de catamarca lagunas de guanacache, desaguadero y del bebedero lagunas de vilama lagunas y esteros del iberá parque provincial el tromen reserva costa atlantica de tierra del fuego reserva ecológica costanera sur reserva natural otamendi reserva provincial laguna brava río pilcomayo potential climate change impacts according to the intergovernmental panel on climate change fourth assessment report from 2007, argentina will be impacted by climate change with differing affects depending on the region of argentina in question. a declining trend in precipitation may be observed in south-west argentina while expected increases in sea-level rise (slr), extreme weather and climatic variability are very likely to affect coastal areas of the buenos aires province in argentina. stress on water availability and quality has been documented where lower precipitation and/or higher temperatures occur. for example, droughts related to la niña create severe restrictions for water supply and irrigation demands in central western argentina. additionally, glaciers in latin america have receded dramatically in the past decades, and many of them have disappeared completely. ipcc predicts this trend to continue and perhaps even worsen. the most affected sub-regions are the peruvian andes, southern chile and argentina up to latitude 25°s. in an article from science daily in march 2008, the news agency reports that, "if the inter-tropical glaciers of chile, argentina, and colombia disappear, water availability and hydropower generation will be affected."