Distribuição e acesso á água em Campina Grande: uma análise da ecologia política.

Abstract

The aim of the current thesis is to investigate the distribution of and access to water in Campina Grande City, based on both the objective and perceived impacts caused by the water rationing initiated in 2014. The main idea herein defended, which is based on the theoretical perspective of Political Ecology, is that the studied urban space configures a water injustice situation associated with the hydraulic criterion, the income stratification, as well as with the waterscape construction in Campina Grande. With respect to the methodology applied to the current study, the water access difficulty and precariousness levels were monitored from the beginning of the rationing currently under way, using intentional household samples stratified by location and household income. The spatial contour was the urban area of Campina Grande and the time interval comprised the period from November 2014 to June 2016. Data concerning water shortages in the households, rationing occurrences, monthly water consumption, impacts on water use routines as experienced and perceived by the users in the sample, as well as sociodemographic data about the users and information about their dwelling, household water supply, water reservation and prevention, were collected and treated. It was possible observing several meanings attributed to the water distribution and access issue in excerpts clipped from users' narratives about their household water use routines, as well as about the elements of the environment they live in. The effects of some water distribution and access determinants, the understanding of how users experience and perceive their access to water, as well as how the water rationing affects their household routines, were addressed and the analysis of such aspects pointed toward a water injustice situation. The following conclusions are among the most relevant ones in the current thesis: (1) there is unequal water distribution in the urban area of Campina Grande due to structural water scarcity, and it more sharply reaches the households located in the high water shortage risk areas; (2) the higher the household income, the greater the water reservation capacity, the easier the access to water, and the lower the impact of rationing on water use routines; (3) the poorest population strata tend to naturalize the restrictive impacts of rationing since they experience and live in a permanent water underconsumption state.