Os serviços de gestão de recursos hídricos

Abstract

In 24 years since its promulgation, the Brazilian National Water Resources Policy has advanced significantly in transitioning to a decentralized, participative and integrated water management. In the same period, water challenges have also grown and became more complex, given competitive demands, climate change, and hydrologic variability combined in increasingly interconnected water systems. This paper brings a new view and an innovative concept to the implementation of water management, to build a more coherent reference to what we traditionally understand as water management actions. The paper explores water management as a service delivered to society, hence proposing the concept of water management services. The concept is timely and very relevant in Brazil, as solutions to water management finance gaps are currently under construction, ranging from infrastructure O&M to other actions and administrative services necessary to execute water resources plans. The paper explains the logic behind the water management services and its relationship with other instruments of the National Water Resources Policy. The main objective is to contribute to a broader understanding of water management as an integrated framework operated to deliver final results to society, rather than a collective of individual actions under responsibility of separated institutions.