Governança na gestão dos recursos hídricos da bacia hidrográfica Piranhas - Açu: uma investigação jurídica, institucional e ambiental.

Abstract

This study analyzes the management of the water resources of the river basin Piranhas-Açu in the institutional, legal and environmental perspectives. It investigates the implementation of water policy in Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba states of Brazil, adopting as reference tools for managing the national water policy, the concept of participatory administration, institutional arrangements and legal environment. The main objective is to analyze the administration in the management of water resources of the river basin Piranhas-Açu, from the mid-1990s on, based on the legal dimensions and institutional environment in order to verify if it promotes democratization of water policy with social justice and environmental balance. To avoid the problem of reductionism, very common in the studies of complex environmental causes, the research adopts an interdisciplinary approach as methodological and epistemological principle. It is an explanatory research because through it we try to improve our knowledge of reality. The research method used is the hermeneutic-systemic, combined with the techniques of interpretation, interviews and documentary analysis. It was established as the geographical area the river basin Piranhas-Açu. The choice of an area of the federal government, located in the States of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, is based on the need to analyze the mechanisms of water administration policy of these states, establishing a comparison with the policy implemented in these estates to the federal government policy. The most important aspects for understanding the theme is the legal interpretation of the applicable rules to water management, research on the dynamics of institutional arrangement, the evaluation of the performance of stakeholders and the analysis of relations between management and conservation of water resources. It seems that water management in the river basin Piranhas-Açu shows strong aspects of economic-financial model based on strategic planning, economic instruments and technocracy. In the state of Rio Grande do Norte, the main limiting factors for the implementation of the policy of water management are: lack of material and poor working conditions, it is also necessary to highlight the lack of a human resources policy for the implementation of water resources policy, which depends on special agreements to get public servants from other sectors of the public administration, lack of financial political policy for water management, outdated water resources plan; nonexistence of a State System of Information Resources; non-implementation of the framework of water quantities; operational difficulties for the management in the concession process, lack of an efficient system to charge for the use of water resources, absence of an ecological-economic zone and implementation of policies of land-use, low coverage of sanitation and solid waste management; lack of water; Insufficient monitoring of the surface and underground water resources, contamination of surface waters. It is possible to highlight as positive experiences in water management of the Piranhas-Açu river basin, the negotiated distribution of water in dams based on the role of stakeholders, building of the regulatory System Açu-Curema; associations and water user committees.