Cobrança pelo lançamento de efluentes: simulação para a bacia do rio Paraíba-PB.

Abstract

Until some years ago, water was considered to be a free resource and it was thought that its demands could be indefinitely met. However, the economic, industrial and social development, which caused an increase in industrial pollution and problems related to the lack of sanitation and water supply made people more concerned to the reality and doubtless that there should be efficient ways to manage water. The Federal Law 9.433/97 which established the National Water Resources Policy and created the National System for Water Resources Management is founded on the principle that water is a public-domain good with economic value. It foresees the integrated management and one of its instruments is the charging for raw water use. The general objective of this research is to simulate the charging for effluent deposition into a hydrographic basin of the Paraiba State, taking into account the limitation of the existing data, for four categories of users: urban population, rural population, industrial sector, and irrigation. The impacts of this charging upon the users are also investigated. The case study is the hydrographic basin of the Paraiba River, which has quality- and quantityrelated water problems. The results obtained indicate that the pollution potential is high and centralized in the large urban centers and industrial activities, mainly in the lower Paraiba River where the largest center (Joao Pessoa) and the majority of the industries within the basin are located. The lower Paraiba River is also responsible for most of the collection in the basin, which is more than 80%. The impacts of the charging in the monthly income are attenuated with the income rise and the number of people per domicile. In most simulations, the impact represents less than 1.8% of the minimum monthly wage (R$ 300.00). For the irrigation user, only tree cotton provided impacts higher than 0.3% in the cost of production of this product. However, in general, the impact is considered to be small and thus it is believed that the charging will be accepted by this sector. The Intermediate Model, for Effluent Pollution Deposition (MICLE) is proposed for this basin since it provided acceptable impacts and an average per-capita charge of R$ 0.80/month. However, the study showed that the implementation of the charging, in particular for effluent deposition, is feasible for the hydrographic basin of the Paraiba River.