The brazilian water resources law: experience in the State of São Paulo

Abstract

Economic development has always been an important subject in academic and political discussions and concern for sustainable development is increasingly recurrent. In Brazil, an important institutional advance in this direction was the enactment in 1997 of Law no. 9433, known as the Water Resources Law or the Water Law. This law acknowledges water as public property with economic value using the Basin Committee as an instrument to reconcile and adjust uses. This committee promotes decentralization of management while considering the local situation and involving a larger number of actors and social organizations. In this context, the objective of this paper is to discuss the main definitions of Law no. 9433, regarding issues of sustainable development, participation and decentralization of decision making in the public sector. An exploratory study was conducted by a review of pertinent literature and an assessment of the experience in the state of São Paulo. Analysis indicates that the Law, while proposing a decentralized and participatory management, encouraged rationalization of water usage and at the same time generated resources for its management and new investments