Brazilian case study (1): Jaguaribe River Basin, Ceará, Brazil

Transcription

1 River Basin Management at the lowest appropriate level World Bank Workshop Warsaw, May 2005 Brazilian case study (1): Jaguaribe River Basin, Ceará, Brazil authored by Rosa Maria Formiga Johnsson & Karin Erika Kemper

2 Summary 1. Overview of the reform process in Brazil 4. Current institutions and management activities

3 Human pressure on water resources in Brazil Amazonien basin: m 3 /inhab/yr Some basins of Northeast Region: 500 m 3 /inhab/yr < 2 habitants/km habitants/km 2 > 100 habitants/km 2 Traditional industries Trad.industries in transition Primary goods, forest products and mining Industrial heart of Brazil Area: 8,5 millions de km millions d habitants

4 Constitutional norms for water ownership State waters Federal waters Federal waters: rivers crossing state or international boundaries State waters: groundwater resources and waters located entirely within the territory of a single state, except those collected in federal reservoirs Two levels of policy and institutional framework for IWRM!

5 The dynamics of approving the water laws in Brazil

6 Main elements of Brazilian water laws Major objective of the National/State Water Policy: Reliability of water availability for current and future generations, at the desired level of water quality Principles: Integrated water management, with the river basin as the planning unit Water as a finite and fragile resource Water as an economic good Decentralized management Participatory management

7 Main elements of Brazilian water laws Management instruments: Basin water resources plans / National water resources plan Bulk water use permits Bulk water charges Classification of water bodies according to predominant use and water quality standards National water resource information system

8 Organizations: Main elements of Brazilian water laws (cont.) National/State Water Council: in charge of supervising and regulating the National System, with stakeholder participation National /State Water Resources Secretariat (SRH): in charge of elaborating the National Water Policy National Water Agency (ANA)/State Water Management Agencies: in charge of implementing the Water Resources Management System River Basin Committees: deliberative stakeholder bodies with decision-making and regulatory powers Often, River Basin Agencies as the technical and administrative arms of the basin committees

9 Two types of river basin Two types of basins, two levels of complexities for RBM: i) National basin : Federal and state organizations should interact at basin level Federal State ii) State basin : less complex, state and occasionally federal organizations within one state territory State A State B

10 The Jaguaribe river basin

11 Location and dimensions Jaguaribe Basin Ceará State 72,560 km2 (48% of the State s territory; 0.9% of Brazil)

12 Main characteristics Jaguaribe Basin Atlantic Ocean 80 municipalities, ~2 million people (~1/3 of Ceará s population), 55% in urban areas Poor (even for Ceará, which contributes only to 1.8% to the nation s GNP: ); agriculture accounts for little part of it but with great social impact Precipitation highly variable: 400 to 1,200 mm Impermeable crystalline rocks in the soil and high temperatures => elevated rates of evapotranspiration (over 2000 mm) => low levels of water retention and storage Groundwater resources considered of limited importance but strategic in specific locations

13 Earlier water management practices Water resources policy and management was traditionally the domain of federal initiative =) Main federal agency (DNOCS), created in the 1910s Ceará State: focused on building small reservoirs and wells, usually during drought crises Supply-based approach: solucão hidráulica ( hydraulic solution ): over 4700 reservoirs (13.5 billion m3), before the reform, less than 50 considered strategic ; 470 km of regulated rivers. BUT: Top-down patronage structure (centralized, rigid and lacked transparency): droughts were mitigate but continued to affect farmers and cities

14 Major water resource problem 1) water scarcity Recurrent droughts and uncertainty of water availability: drought at least every 5 years, and can persist over several years Waterless spaces (vazios hídricos) Growing urban demand inside the basin: urban demand start to compete with the major user of the basin (irrigation) Growing urban demand and inter-basin transfers: Jaguaribe became in 1992 the main water source for expanding Greater Fortaleza region; major infrastructure under construction: Castanhão reservoir (6.7 billion m 3 ) was completed in 2003 and a 225 km waterway is under construction to take up to 19 m3/s for urban and industrial demand of Greater Fortaleza.

15 Others water resource problems and issues (cont.) 2) Water quality and environmental concerns 3) Recurrent floods 4) Lack of knowledge about the real availability and utilization of groundwater resources 5) Inadequate operation and maintenance of water infrastructure

16 Initiation of reform: initial conditions and context Pre-existing conditions entirely unfavorable to increase stakeholder involvement and transparency in decision making: poor basin; inexperienced state in management issues; patriarchal culture; lack of stakeholder mobilization, etc.

17 Initiation of reform: motivations for change Water related-problems Post-dictatorship context and the national movement to promote integrated, decentralized and participatory management The voluntary nature of reforms in Ceará (with strong long-term support from the World Bank)

18 What the reform is about Building the institutional capacities of state government Decentralizing water resources management => Federal - state decentralization => State - basin decentralization

19 Reform objectives and process Objectives, principles and water instruments: the same of the federal and most Brazilian laws Political and institutional structure: more centralized than the pioneer São Paulo and the federal law; major changes during process (COGERH)

20 Reform objectives and process (cont.) State Water Company (COGERH): water use rights, technical support to basin committees, defining and implementing the water charges and the allocation of proceeds; O&M of bulk water supply infrastructure (state infrastructure and the strategic federal infrastructure) More centralized model but with a strong response from below (role of stakeholders around local organizations)

21 Description of basin organizations (1): water users associations Jaguaribe Banabuiú valleys commission Reservoir commission Since 1994: 36 reservoirs commissions and the Jaguaribe- Banabuiú Valleys Commission (informal organizations) Composition very flexible: 63 members in 1994 and 111 in 2004 (users, civil society, municipalities and state) Main activities and impact: permanent negotiation for water allocation, with the technical support from COGERH (decision over the volumes to be released from the reservoirs and the rules that must be respected by all users)

22 Description of basin organizations (2): sub-basin committees Banabuiú Baixo-Jaguaribe Created between to 50 members: 30% users; 30% civil society; 20% municipalities; 20% state and federal agencies Formal attributions: several responsibilities, from setting guidelines and approving basin plans, to conflict conciliation Alto-Jaguaribe Médio-Jaguaribe Salgado Performance: information and mobilization; building capacity among local actors; concerns about water quality protection; mitigation of water conflicts. Lack of technical, administrative and financial support => Basin committees still trying to define their roles and power

23 What worked Great achievements after 12-years long reform process: Capacity building of Ceará State for water resources security and management Minimum financial sustainability guaranteed through bulk water pricing (for abstraction only): from US$107,400 in 1996 to US$7.8 million in 2004 (only 6.5% are generated in the Jaguaribe basin) O&M of infrastructure: more effective (federal/dnocs-state decentralization, sustained over time) water permits: advanced for industries, and water supply companies; expanding for irrigators (federal state decentralization increased)

24 What worked (cont.) Great achievements after 12-years long reform process (cont.): Great improvement in technical information system Involvement of water users and civil society in water management issues (partial state-basin decentralization); More participative and transparent decisions over water allocation; More concerns about water quality and environmental problems More rational use and security of water, including flood control: reducing exposure to flooding

25 Innovation of Ceará in the Jaguaribe basin Simply less decentralization from the state to local levels than elsewhere in Brazil => river basin scale is less relevant there for IWRM purposes, in favor of combining state level management at river basin with decision-making at smaller territorial levels such as subbasins, regulated river valleys and reservoirs.

26 Remaining issues Internal institutional arrangement: Users associations vs Basin committees Role of local organizations in the management system (more influence in decision making, especially with regard to infrastructure and water transfers) Relationship between COGERH and basin organizations (political, financial and technical support, decisions over water charges) Informal water allocation vs formal water permits Charging irrigators Building a more holistic management system (better groundwater management and water quality, incorporation of environmental issues) Since 2003: return to more centralized policies

27 End End