The limits of integrated water resources management: a case study of Brazil’s Paraíba do Sul River Basin

Abstract

The transition to water sustainability involves challenging questions about problem assessment, stakeholder involvement, and response coordination. To overcome these difficulties, new approaches have been developed to inform regulatory changes and to help to improve the level of water sustainability. One of the preferred methods is integrated water resources management (IWRM) that combines different aspects and a plurality of goals associated with water use and conservation. However, important obstacles remain in the way of IWRM and, ultimately, water sustainability. A case study in the Paraíba do Sul River Basin in the southeastern region of Brazil illustrates the multiple barriers to appropriate integration of socioeconomic considerations into the sustainable management of water systems. The opportunity to improve environmental conditions and to engage local stakeholders has been frustrated by the contradictory directions of regulatory reforms. On one hand, IWRM-informed policies have introduced flexible instruments of water regulation and pushed for the reorganization of the river-basin committee. On the other hand, the focus has been restricted to technical and managerial solutions that tend to ignore the influence of social inequalities and political asymmetries and, as a consequence, undermine water sustainability.

Key Words:

• river basin management
• socioeconomic factors
• water use regulations
• water conservation
• water management