Running Water: Partcipatory Management in Brazil

...Instead, these were assimilated into general state revenues, rendering them subject to the spending restrictions dictated by the terms of Brazil's agreements with the International Monetary Fund, to say nothing of their tendency to disappear into other projects...

...It has the dedicated support of much of the expert community, but even that community is divided...

...Moreover, federal legislation failed to establish a separate trust fund for water revenues...

...The defection of powerful actors would almost certainly displace decision-making elsewhere, gutting the model's democratizing potential...

...In Rio Grande do Sul, where the first of the still-functioning basin committees was established in the late 1980s, close relationships among technical employees in state agencies, environmentalists and local universities provided the basis for collaboration...

...powerful sec Since the most politically contentious of derailing t portion of the new regime-the cobranca-required further enabling legislation, passage of the initial laws did not confront significant opposition and hence did not require broader societal mobilization...

...Beate Frank and Noema Bohn, "A Bacia Hidrogrsfica do Rio Itajal e o processo de criagvo do Comits de Bacia," in Theis, Tomio and Mattedi (eds...

...8 In other regions, the problem was not water quality but quantity-too much or too little...

...162-194...

...Most importantly, the general abundance of water in the country allowed each relevant agency and policy sector to pursue its own goals independently Brazil's federalist political framework complicates matters, as freshwater management was (and remains) divided between federal and state governments...

...Part of the broader political problem confronting the reformers is the fact that water reform does not have a natural constituency...

...The outcome of this expected political collision will determine the fate of the participatory decision-making model for Brazil's water management system...

...This only postponed the inevitable political confrontation...

...Nonetheless, the mechanisms by which this will be accomplished remain unspecified...

...Participants noted that these trips helped them develop a sense of joint purpose and grow better acquainted with one another...

...The precise shape its structures assume are reflective of local conditions...

...These organizers quickly perceived that most local users depended upon water from small dams and holding tanks that had been constructed on private land...

...The smaller scale of the basins in that state, the relatively close-knit network of local specialists and the strong community traditions of the region helped facilitate this collaboration...

...Studies of other examples can also be obtained at this same Web site and in Rosa Maria Formiga Johnsson and Paula Duarte Lopes, Projeto Marca d'Agua: seguindo as mudangas na gestio das bacias hidrogrdficas do Brasil: cademrno 1: retratos 3X4 das bacias pesquisadas...

...The river basin committees were intended to be broadly representative, incorporating the most important stakeholders--state, corporate and civil society...

...The benefits of collaboration became apparent to all concerned, and these users' groups now suggest themselves as important players for inclusion in any future committees concerned with water management at a sub-basin or basin level...

...Although there had been periodic mobilizations around the pollution of the city's reservoirs, there was no recognition in Paulista society of larger common objectives around water management...

...After decades of struggling against a centralized authoritarian state, grassroots movements in Brazil sought a greater voice through the creation of decentralized, participatory structures...

...9 In Ceard, in Brazil's northeast, local social capital is much thinner, but the impact of recurring drought has been so devastating that no one questions the need to improve water management...

...Instead, there were major conflicts among industry interests, administrators of power plants, inhabitants of squatter settlements, fishers, leisure users and the general urban population...

...The Piracicaba and Alto Tiete basins were identified in the 1991 water law as requiring the oversight of committees...

...In other cases, reform success may depend upon the degree to which collaborative practices have been built among stakeholders...

...Popular mobilization began in 1966 and continued thereafter, eventually prompting the creation of an intermunicipal consortium to facilitate negotiated solutions among municipal and state authorities and business interests...

...they also see was the first step along the it as a path to the system's slippery slope to full com- modification and privatidemocratization...

...Urban Struggles for Livelihood and Sustainability (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), pp...

...5. Paula Duarte Lopes, "Bacia do Rio Piracicaba," in Rosa Maria Formiga Johnsson and Paula Duarte Lopes, Projeto Marca d'Agua: seguindo as mudanpas na gestio das bacias hidrograficas do Brasil: caderno 1: retratos 3X4 das bacias pesquisadas (Brasilia: FINATEC, 2003...

...Fundamental to the revised system is the designation of water as an economic good, for whose use or harm its users should pay For the authors of the new laws, unless the value of water is incorporated within the price of goods and services it will be impossible to control waste and pollution, let alone conserve water for future generations...

...Novos 0/hares sobre Blumenau (Blumenau: EdiFURB, 2000...

...Potential veto players will be more likely to accede to change if they perceive in their counterparts a willingness to accommodate some of their needs...

...Ownership of freshwater officially remains public...

...Some leaders have found creative forms of action to energize their committees and to build a base of community support...

...they also see it as a path to the system's democratization...

...But this constituency is hard to mobilize...

...In the meantime, many committees have stagnated due to the very long delay in implementing what was to be their resource base...

...5 The Alto Tiete basin is essentially coterminous with Metropolitan Sao Paulo, and its problems are equally gargantuan in scale...

...Time, together with the continued dedication of various determined individuals and organizations, will tell...

...Therefore, they did not immediately seek political allies outside a community of like-minded professionals...

...Brazil's capacity to manage its waterways for other priorities-to best ensure multiple uses and environmental protection, for example-has proven deficient...

...See Peter H. Gleik, The World's Water 2000-2001 (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000), p. 197...

...This logic echoes one of the four "Dublin Principles" agreed to at the 1992 International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin, Ireland, which are widely accepted as part of a new set of international norms on freshwater use...

...Of at least equal value, however, and indeed underpinning this first anticipated gain, is the potential of the new model to democratize decision-making around the administration of this vital natural resource...

...Cobranga is defined as a market-oriented pricing mechanism that functions to regulate supply and demand and to finance improvements...

...The new system, therefore, regulates water as a publicly-owned good by employing a delicate balance of both market and participatory planning mechanisms...

...Furthermore, the reform was not seen as an imposition from abroad...

...This history of prior mobilization and interaction meant that committee organizers could draw upon existing networks of support and a relatively informed population...

...2. At 4,309 cubic miles per year, they far outstrip those of second-place Russia, with 2,789 cubic miles...

...Ceard's current management system was constructed simultaneously at several levels...

...Although proposals to privatize key services-from hydroelectric facilities to sanitation companiesentered the Brazilian debate, the question of privatization was not equated with that of promoting decentralized and participatory decision-making when it came to water management reform...

...Livable Cities...

...Running Water: Participatory Management in Brazil 1. Most of the information contained in this article was collected by participants in the Watermark Project (Projeto Marca d'Agua), a multidisciplinary study of the development of decentralized water management institutions in 20 Brazilian river basins over five to ten years...

...The dynamism of these committees stems from the salience of problems caused by poor water management, as in the cases of Ceard and Itajal, and from their deliberate, relationshipbuilding organizational practices...

...6. The Sio Paulo water districts are not all river basins...

...THE NEW BRAZILIAN WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IS still in formation...

...Relationship building among memrtain bers, on the other hand, appears to be most effective when efforts focus initially ors capable on small projects with modest objectives...

...It requires major water users-industries, sanitation companies, electric companies and irrigators-to pay for both the quantity of water they use and their polluting discharges...

...Brazilian water specialists generally equate politics with demands made of them to compromise technical coherence to satisfy powerful, sometimes partisan interests...

...They were further able to garner support from councilors of diverse political orientation in order to get decisions ratified by municipal councils...

...Thus, the charges could be construed as an investment rather than as a tax...

...Moreover, this channeling of fee revenues would give significant power to basin committees with regard to determining priority areas for investment...

...It appointed organizers who were knowledgeable and, in some cases, passionately committed to grassroots participation in development activities...

...The legislative problems are small compared to the institutional and political ones, as water agencies in most states simply do not have the necessary information or monitoring capacities, and governments have been slow to address these shortcomings...

...6 Specialists describe the Tiet's waters as a necklace of pollution surrounding the city...

...democratic Salience is particularly important where ess will the problem involves quantity and its control involves divisible, quantifiable solue vested tions...

...Meanwhile, many of the The ideal of most powerful economic actors were well planning pro served by the former system in which water was free and regulatory oversight collide with was disorganized and sporadic...

...There, the most powerful economic players-power companies and industries--largely remained on the sidelines in the early stages, participating formally but without committing to particular actions...

...Crucial elements of this new Brazilian policy had been conceived well before economists of the Washington Consensus linked decentralization and privatization in the minds of state reformers...

...most Brazilians are still unaware of the new system...

...Water delivery and sanitation companies resented the possibility of suddenly having to absorb the cost of the waste from their leaky pipes...

...They were to set guidelines and priorities, to deliberate on the pricing criteria for water charges, and to approve or set up the executive agencies that would collect the fees and implement proposed improvements...

...The democratizing potential of decentralized water management has been considered more seriously in Brazil than in many other developing countries...

...e system...

...7 Local agencies responsible for energy, sanitation and environmental affairs all boasted long, proud and distinct traditions, with performance records that set the standards for Brazil...

...The collaborative relationships and practices that are built generate reciprocity and trust-social capital-and create a snowball effect through which committees gain the capacity to mobilize members to carry out more ambitious actions...

...During the 1990s, to redress this administrative disarray, several Brazilian states and the federal government all passed legislation mandating a reorganization of the country's water management system...

...Others objected on strictly economic grounds...

...Household and other small-scale consumers were also upset, for while they were not to be charged directly, most were convinced that utility firms would pass the increased costs along in their bills...

...Not surprisingly, however, once money and profits were at stake, they asserted themselves forcefully in relation to decisions about who and how much would be charged, and how the proceeds would be spent...

...The Tiete, for example, is divided into districts for management of the upper, middle and lower reaches of the river, each part of which has distinct characteristics...

...See also Margaret E. Keck, "'Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink:' Land Use and Water Policy in Sho Paulo, Brazil," in Peter Evans (ed...

...As a result, cobranga is only in effect in one basin as a pilot case: the Paraiba do Sul basin...

...For more information on the project, see: <http://www.marcadagua.org.br...

...The organizers created users' associations around these dams, setting their agencies' technical experts to work producing scenarios as to how different sets of decisions about water release would play out...

...The dams' floodgates were opened at the discretion of the landowner, in an often-unpredictable fashion...

...4 Committee organization in Sao Paulo was a much more complex undertaking...

...3. The conference, a preparatory event for the June 1992 UNCED, included government-designated experts from over 100 countries and representatives of 80 international, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations...

...This has led to an impasse at present and may ultimately derail the new model and its participatory component, unless sufficient political support can be mobilized to defend it...

...9. See Ivanir Mais, Bacia do Rio Itajaf," <http://www.marcadagua.org.br...

...The Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Program have similarly played an important role at times...

...Measures concerning water quality and quantity-concession of use rights for irrigation, hydroelectricity, public water supply and leisure-thus came to involve dozens of agencies among which there was little coordination...

...Using the Ceara project as a model, the World Bank launched the Pr6-Agua Semi-Arido Program in other northeastern states...

...Breaking out of the corporative spirit of these agencies, which were defensive of their own prerogatives, was no easy matter, despite the obvious need for a concerted approach...

...By the end of 2002 in Sao Paulo, for example, it seemed unlikely that state legislation on cobranga would survive opposition from the industrial sector...

...Local political, social and hydrographic conditions affect the organization of these new bodies...

...At the national level, they were not well prepared to counter the arguments of some members of Congress who called for the introduction of a redistributive component into cobranCa, an amendment that would have violated the principle that proceeds should return to the river basin...

...The relatively easy and quiet passage of the initial laws also meant that the reasons for the changes were never effectively communicated to the population at large...

...3 Agenda 21, the action plan from the follow-up conference which took place in Rio that same year, incorporates these principles and refers to water as "an integral part of the ecosystem, a natural resource and a social and economic good, whose quantity and quality determine the nature of its utilization," adding that "water users should be charged appropriately...

...Indeed, to rationalize water these critics such a move management...

...The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development," <http://www.wmo.ch/web/homs/documents/english/icwedece.html...

...In early May 2004, the Senate passed legislation mandating that cobranca monies be returned to the basins where they were collected, and that they be exempted from the stringent spending restrictions applied to general state revenues...

...This occurred in the Paralba do Sul basin, the pilot case for implementing the cobranCa...

...4. Janine Haase, "Bacia do Rio dos Sinos," and Ricardo Gutierrez, "Bacia do Rio Gravataf," <http:// www.marcadagua.org.br...

...In 2002, leaders organized expeditions of committee members along the area's waterways, with the immediate objective of identifying problems...

...Hence, interests of c their opposition to reform presents a daunting obstacle...

...At a regional meeting of state officials involved in the program, one official declared that they were moving toward a decentralized and participatory model "because the World Bank told us to do it...

...The form this new payment-for-use principle has taken in Brazil is known as cobranCa (water charging...

...The activity thus resulted in a number of small-scale remedies for concrete problems, while generating a stronger collaborative culture within the group...

...Important segments of the environmental movement support it as well, perceiving it to offer an opportunity for a greater voice in policymaking...

...Reformers hope it will be an era in which the management of this vital resource better takes into account the needs and concerns of all sectors of Brazilian society...

...The reasons for the current impasse are, in essence, political...

...They thought it necessary and possible that technical decisions be insulated from politics, and they believed that the weight of their ideas alone would convince others to support the changes they proposed...

...The ideal of a democratic planning process involving multiple stakeholders will collide with the vested interests of certain powerful sectors capable of derailing the system...

...Water rights are still allocated by the state, though this is now to be done according to priorities established by the participatory basin committees that were also created as part of the restructured system...

...8. Margaret Keck and Pedro Jacobi, "Bacia do Alto TSet6," <http://www.marcadagua.org.br...

...and organizations A woman in a S9o concerned with diverse societal interests, Paulo squatter camp such as environmental groups, commu- uses a communal nity organizations, bar associations and hose...

...A simple example comes from the Litoral Norte water management district in Sao Paulo...

...The snail's pace at which implementation of water charges has occurred, however, has weakened the reform's impetus, although committees continue to be created...

...As an alternative strategy, Litoral Norte committee leaders convinced the mayors of the four municipalities involved to make annual contributions, proportional to municipal revenues, to fund the committee's work...

...and authorized to hire people with both technical and organizational skills...

...Periodic flooding of the Itajal basin in the southeastern state of Santa Catarina united a wide swath of the population behind a call for action...

...Nonetheless, it is a reform process that, if brought to fruition, could yield huge social benefit...

...This fiscal control would add muscle to the democratic influence that these bodies were intended to have...

...Indeed, many Brazilian champions of participatory democracy believed decentralized structures would necessarily be more democratic and open than those that had come before...

...State and federal agencies and councils were to support, regulate and coordinate basin-level decision-making...

...Some elements of the new management model, however, face powerful political opposition...

...Assigning water an economic value, however, has proven controversial...

...National technical specialists formulated its design and fought for its implementation...

...The successful defense of the reform effort, on the other hand, could well inaugurate an auspicious new era...

...Having achieved passage of the plan, the committee proceeded to establish an executive agency and move forward with implementation of its projects...

...the like...

...7. Interview, Ana L6cia Magyar, FUNDAP, Sho Paulo, May 25, 1999...

...In Sdo Paulo, water professionals were blindsided by the stonewalling tactics of industrial associations...

...Most water reformers did not make the political arguments for the new system with as much vigor as they did the technical ones...

...The resulting new framework bears great promise, particularly in its creation of relatively inclusive decision-making committees to oversee management of water resources at the river basin level...

...They called meetings of those who depended upon this water and presented their scenarios as a prelude to negotiation...

...Like cobranca, the basin committees are an integral component of the reform legislation, which calls for institutions organized along geographical-river basin-rather than political boundaries...

...Because the region is defined by its strong social networks, civic awareness and, by Brazilian standards, a relatively egalitarian society, local conditions facilitated their efforts...

...There is E also a larger, but very diffuse, potential constituency in 7 the public at large, for should the new system function as hoped, everyone would gain...

...zation...

...Historically, a number of factors have contributed to this shortfall...

...Instead, it emerged from the ideas and efforts of a handful of dedicated individuals and groups-technical personnel in state agencies, environmental NGOs, and scientists and engineers...

...By using available resources creatively, some committees have been able to formulate their own agendas, accomplish goals and attract collaborators...

...As a result, participants decided together when the gates would be opened and for how long, so as to maximize the benefit to their crops...

...Large corporations disliked the notion of having to make water use decisions on the basis of cost rather than on loosely defined needs, as in the past...

...In this sense, the World Bank failed in its effort to convince Brazilians to adopt a Chilean-style water rights trading system...

...The rationalization of water management to better ensure water quality and consistent access is one potential advantage of the proposed new approach...

...BRAZIL'S FRESHWATER RESOURCES DWARF those of any other country 2 While the importance of its rivers has stimulated the growth of first-rate university programs in engineering and related scientific fields, these primarily focus on generating hydroelectric power to promote industrial growth...

...The allocation of water use and the transfer of water ownership into private hands are express30 ly beyond the authority of the cobranqa system...

...Few grassroots community organizations and political party activists were involved...

...The Piracicaba River was rank with the waste of sugar and paper mills, affecting the whole region and providing a powerful incentive to organize...

...When and if cobranCa is finally implemented, whether on a state-by-state or, for river basins under federal auspices, a case-by-case basis, the system's dynamics will change...

...Irrigators argued that internalizing the cost of water would price their products out of the market...

...municipal, state and federal governments...

...Many of the participating water specialists and activists consider the system's reorganization to be more than a means to rationalize water management...

...lO.Rosana Garjullil, et al., "Bacia do Rio Jaguaribe," <http://www.marcadagua.org.br...

...Committees whose early practices give them some legitimacy and presence in the local community will likely navigate the perils of this anticipated confrontation better than others...

...To endow cobranqa with greater legitimacy in the face of such concerns, promoters of the new legislation proposed that the fees paid within the jurisdiction of each river basin be returned to that basin to fund improvement projects...

...The structure and composition of basin committees vary, however, from state to state and even from committee to committee...

...International documents such as Agenda 21--the action plan adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro-have also politically bolstered the reformers by helping to validate their claims...

...10 32 ALL THESE ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS HAVE SET the stage for realizing the proposed new practices of integrated water management...

...When the state government dallied, local organizers took the initiative and mobilized business owners, local NGOs and members of the regional university...

...In practice, water basin committees generally have come to include representatives of large and small water users, both public and private...

...In cases such as that of the Itajai committee, local industrialists are already committed to finding joint solutions to problems...

...Predictably, then, when enabling legislation has met with strong political opposition, adequate supporting coalitions have not been in place...

...First, a semi-autonomous water agency was established A river snakes through palms and thick tropical foliage in the northeastern state of CearS...

...So far, however, Brazil has resisted pressures to establish a market for water rights...

...Although almost all states included cobranga in water legislation, in most cases it requires additional legislation and institutional change to be viable...

...Even so, powerful international actors have provided important political support to reform efforts...

...Some, including the Catholic Church and many on the Water specialists and left, believed that desigactivists consider the nating water as an economic good would undersystem's reorganization to mine efforts to establish be more than a means to access to it as a basic human right...

...1 The democratic potential of the nascent reform has captured the imagination of many committed individuals...

...Those committees that have formed, or that are in formation, will be able to determine procedures for charging user fees and to decide how revenues would be spent...

...Indeed, political factors have affected the way the new model has been implemented at least as much as social and hydrological conditions have done...