A cobrança pelo uso da água como instrumento de gestão de recursos hídricos

Abstract

The world's water reserves have gradually shrunk what indicates that water scarcity in the near future will be inevitable for most of the world's population. In addition, surface waters are the most vulnerable to pollution and scarcity due to their easy accessibility to the discharge of industrial and domestic effluents, particularly close to urban settlements and industrial activities. Brazil has an important water reserve but needs to efficiently diagnose how it is in terms of regulation, supervision and control of consumption policies, including the implementation of adequate water charges, a significant instrument for better management of water resources and the main purpose of this study. Successful cases have been demonstrated from countries where water has economic value, and charging for consumption or waste can encourage the measured use of the good, drawing on successful experiences in Israel, Australia, the american state of California and Singapore. After data collection, an overview was given of the current situation in Brazil, whether it is charging for interstate watersheds (in the case of Union-owned rivers) or state watersheds (in the case of rivers of and state-owned or local). From the analysis performed, it was found that charging for the use of water resources is still little used by the federal government and member states. The present work intends to demonstrate the intrinsic relationship between the charge for natural resource use and the valorization of the good and its rational use, besides showing how such collection serves as an instrument for the implementation of macroeconomic policies for water resources management.