Análise de conflitos institucionais na gestão dos recursos hídricos do Estado da Paraíba.

Abstract

The Water Resources National Policy was established by Law 9433/97, but some Brazilian States do not comply with its legal requirements. Considering that inadequate water resources legislation has a direct impact on the water resources management model, on organizational system as well as on the application of management instruments, the overall objective is to identify and analyze the conflicts posed by institutional failure/inadequacy (legal, political, and organizational aspects) of Parafba State's water management system. In this context, three levels of comprehensiveness are adopted: the global level (Parafba State's water institutional framework); the regional level (Parafba River Basin Committee); and the local level (groundwater management at the Parafba River Lower Course's Coastal Sedimentary Basin). The theoretical and empirical research has adopted the method of hypothetical-deductive approach and methods of comparative procedure - especially for comparative analysis of legal and organizational structure - and statistical procedure in verifying the performance of the Parafba River Basin Committee. The results indicate the existence of conflicts at the: global level: legal conflicts (management model adopted, water management instruments definition, state water basin committees acting areas), political conflicts (inadequate application of water rights and water charging), and organizational conflicts (relative to all the entities that compose the SIGERH); regional level: legal conflicts (number of members, minimum number of annual meetings, and the absence of a Technical Chamber for Conflict Resolution), political conflicts (creation of the basin agency and, in relation to water charging, the definition of exemption values and volumes), and organizational conflicts (lack of motivation of some stakeholders, and inadequate composition of the committee segments); local level: legal conflicts: (inadequacy or absence of groundwater management measures). Based on the analysis, several recommendations are presented in order to resolve the conflicts identified, among which there are suggestions for the amendment of the: State Water Policy Law (Law 6.308/96), Decree 19.260/97 (which regulates water rights in the State of Parafba), and CERH's Resolution 09/07 (which establishes the State's water charging model), thus offering support for a more efficient water management in the State Parafba. The analysis results allow the conclusion that water resources management at the State of Parafba has shown improvements in relation to some aspects, but there is the need for solving the identified legal, political and organizational incompatibilities in order to guarantee the execution of a fair and equitable water management.