Análise da descentralização da governança da água na Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Salitre - BA.

Abstract

Water scarcity has become a frequent environmental problem in the lives of the world population, especially in some Brazilian regions, such as the Northeast, which, in the latest years, has suffered from one of the most significant droughts ever faced in the area. On the other hand, in addition to the scarcity of water in these regions, the water demand is still increasing. This last fact may be due to the lack of data control, issuance of grants and management issuance of licenses and centralized management, causing the origin of environmental conflicts in the scope of water resources. To evaluate the decentralization of water governance in the Salitre River Basin, in the present work, the first two principles of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development were chosen. From a joint analysis of these, it is possible to obtain the situation of the Basin under study on the clear attribution of roles and responsibilities (Principle 1), which is a prerequisite for the implementation of the decentralization of water resources that is provided by the Principle 2, through the management of water resources at the appropriate scales. In this sense, for each principle, criteria have been stipulated to assist in its understanding in a simplified way and, for each of them, an analysis has been made, which details the requirement for its fulfillment. Thus, if this requirement were fulfilled, a score of 100% would be awarded. Otherwise, a score of 0% would be assigned. Altogether, for the two principles, 14 (fourteen) criteria were stipulated, which together represent all the parameters that define the decentralization of governance of the Salitre River Basin-BA. In this sense, after assigning the criteria scores, a final average was calculated, and, finally, a decentralization scale of 64.28% was obtained, which allowed the governance system of the Salitre River Basin to be partially centralized, based on the analyzed aspects. Regarding Principle 1, the governance system was compliant with the allocation of roles and responsibilities. However, for Principle 2, it was noticed problems in the Basin due to lack of implementation of collection instruments that prejudice economic socio-environmental objectives. Also, the Water Resources Plan for the Salitre River Basin provides guidelines that are compatible with higher-level policies and plans, combined with well-designed action programs, but which have been hampered by the failure to meet short-term goals. Another problem was identified in the criteria related to the hydrological cycle maintenance, in which a negative water balance was observed in the catchment with a low water distribution due to the interruption in the Salitre River flow of water and the absence of sanitary sewage in part of the territory. In this sense, it is concluded that the Basin committee has a strong presence in Salitre River Basin, despite not carrying out the control of the Water Resources Plan for the Salitre River Basin action program well.