WATER-BRAZIL: A Crisis of Management, not Lack

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 28 2003 (IPS) - Shortages, waste, pollution and conflicts over water are some of the aspects of Brazil’s water crisis, but they are all linked to problems of administration, said experts who debated the issue at a two-day meeting in Brasilia that ended Friday.

”It is more of a latent than an actual crisis, and one that is more social than economic, because it affects the poor,” said Marcos Freitas, director of technology and information at Brazil’s National Water Agency (ANA), in the seminar on ”Water, Development and Environmental Justice” organised in the Brazilian capital by the ANA and the Environment Ministry.

The issue is a complex one and involves a number of actors, which means solutions require the participation of many sectors, from the agriculture, environment, industry and energy ministries, to national, provincial and local governments and consumers, Freitas told IPS in a telephone interview.

To tackle the problem of water scarcity in Brazil’s impoverished northeast, for instance, crops that are poorly suited to the region’s semi-arid climate, like rice, should be replaced by varieties of fruit, for example, which need less water and preserve moisture in the soil, he said.

There is much talk about possible future wars between countries over water. But disputes within countries already abound, the experts noted.

In recent years, the ANA has had to ”mediate in many fights” in Brazil, due to a lengthy drought that led to the adoption of nationwide electricity rationing measures between June 2001 and February 2002, Freitas pointed out.

In the most serious dispute, local residents, city governments, hotels and tourism-related businesses that depend on the Furnas reservoir in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais pressured the local hydropower plant to cut its activity in order to keep the water level in the artificial lake – which has a 3,600-km perimeter – from going down any further.

But it was not possible at that time of energy shortages to yield to that demand, despite the social, economic and environmental effects of the low water level in the reservoir, the head of the ANA observed.

The world’s fresh water reserves still far exceed demand, but problems like unequal distribution give rise to critical situations in many regions, he said.

According to United Nations statistics, more than two million people die and 250 million fall ill annually due to water problems, while 1.2 billion lack access to clean water.

But even more alarming is the projection that at the rate at which water is currently wasted, two-thirds of humanity will suffer shortages within the next 20 years.

Conflicts also break out between provincial governments. For example, disputes have arisen over a project to divert the Sao Francisco river, the source of which lies in central Brazil, which is aimed at easing shortages in semi-arid parts of the northeast.

What is needed is a ”federal pact on national water resources” that harmonises the often conflicting laws and interests of Brazil’s states, Brazilian Vice-President José Alencar said at the seminar.

Although Brazil boasts ”12 percent of the planet’s surface water resources, part of the population does not even have access to clean water for drinking,” said Environment Minister Marina Silva.

The northeast is home to 29 percent of the country’s total population of 175 million but has just three percent of the fresh water resources, while the scarcely populated Amazon jungle region in the north, where just seven percent of Brazilians live, has 68 percent of the water.

The southeast, meanwhile, where 43 percent of the population resides, has just six percent of the total water resources.

In the view of Aldo Rebouças, with the University of Sao Paulo, waste is the biggest problem. Between 40 and 60 percent of piped water is lost before it even reaches the faucets, and 70 percent of all water piped into households is wasted, he estimated.

The pollution of rivers and other sources of water also drastically reduces availability of clean water.

Another serious problem is deforestation. The Mata Atlantica, a forest system that extends along Brazil’s eastern seaboard, has already shrunk by 93 percent, although it continues ensuring the ”renewal” of water that supplies two-thirds of Brazil’s population, according to the report ”Water and Forests” drawn up by environment authorities in the state of Sao Paulo and non-governmental organisations.

Charging companies fees for water use and levying fines or taxes on industries that pollute is ”an economic management tool” that the ANA, which was created two years ago, is beginning to apply, said Freitas.

In the seminar, the ANA presented the report ”State of Water Resources in Brazil 2001-2002”, which noted that 77.8 percent of Brazilian households receive treated piped water, and 47.2 percent are located in areas with sewage systems.

Although the deficit remains large, the statistics show that between 1991 and 2000, an additional 28.1 million people began to receive piped water, and 24.2 million began to receive sewage services.