Fostering Water Resilience In Brazil

Brazil made significant progress in managing water resources since the adoption of the National Water Law in 1997 and the creation of the National Water and Sanitation Agency (ANA) in 2000. Nevertheless, water security challenges persist and will be aggravated by megatrends such as climate change, population growth, urbanisation, and the economic, social and environmental consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This book assesses the performance of Brazil’s water governance and suggests policy recommendations for strengthening the co-ordination between federal and state water policies and for setting up more robust water allocation regimes that can better cope with future risks.

The Brazilian economy rebounded strongly after the Covid-19 pandemic. Resilient domestic demand, supported by social transfers, continues to drive growth. Inflation is decreasing, providing room for further monetary policy easing. However, public debt remains high, calling for a credible fiscal framework and improved spending efficiency.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour, actions and governance are important factors in how they, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. This report uses PAFER to assess both the internal and external governance of Brazil’s National Agency for Water and Basic Sanitation (ANA). The review offers recommendations for the regulator to build upon its strong technical reputation and good practices. It proposes an integrated set of recommendations to help ANA best fulfil its roles relating to water resource management and water-use regulation, dam safety, and water supply and sanitation.

This book entitled Integrated Resilient Water Resources Management attempts to address the main aspects of integrated management of water resources, climate change and sustainable development in Brazil in recent decades. The book consists of three parts, namely: i) Integrated Resilient Water Resources Management; ii) Climate Resilience in Water Resources and iii) Sustainability in Water Resources.It is a fact that we are living in an era of great uncertainties related to the climate and that we need tools for climate-resilient water management approaches. In recent decades, climate change is accelerating and disrupting the economies of many countries on a global scale and affecting livelihoods, especially through the impact on water and water-related risks. In this sense, it is imperative to incorporate Climate Risks in Decision Making in the integrated resilient water resources management.Thus, the first part of the book (chapter 1 and 2) presents a brief analysis of the current model of integrated water resources management in Brazil, with its advances and implementation problems, in order to present proposals for its improvement. The current water resources management model is discussed with an emphasis on aspects of regulation and social control (seeking efficiency and improving quality and rescuing the public sphere as an instrument for exercising citizenship, among other aspects). We sought to analyze the theme from a theoretical-historical approach to regulation (water management models implemented in Brazil and the genesis of regulatory agencies) and participatory management of water resources, involving the relationship of the State and the public sphere, in especially within river basin committees and water agencies....Therefore, policies related to the management of water resources, the environment and climate change in Brazil are analyzed in a certain way.The Editor.

This report identifies LAC countries’ main climate change policy priorities, which were discussed through a series of Regional Policy Dialogues and Expert Workshops and complements these with findings of recent analyses by the OECD and other international partners. It explores issues related to their implementation on climate adaptation, mitigation, and cross-cutting policy areas.

The complex interactions between water resources, land-use change and water technologies are a major issue in many emerging countries of Southern America. Usable water resources are affected by natural conditions, such as, strong seasonal contrasts and high climatic variability, and rapid changes of land use and land cover that is caused by the dramatic expansion of agricultural land and urbanization processes. So far, the effects of the changing climate have had minor effects on water resources. Although regional data is rather scarce, global climate models predict substantial changes of climatic conditions in the future. A further pressure is that demand for water supply and waste water, both in terms of amount and spatial expansion, is increasing rapidly due to higher population densities caused by natural population growth and migration as well as higher per capita consumption. Integrated Water Resource Management in Brazil aims to present the results of the joint project IWAS-AGUA DF which deals with problems, causes and solutions in water supply in scope of integrated water resource management in western Central Brazil. The basic idea of the IWRM approach to be presented is to show how natural conditions and human interference are interacting and how technologies as well as concepts might help to manage such water resource systems in a sustainable way. Authors: Carsten Lorz, Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf, University of Applied Sciences, Germany, Franz Makeschin, Dresden University of Technology, Germany and Holger Weiss, Center for Environmental Research, Germany