Water Resources as a Common Good in Brazil: Legal Reform Between Theory and Practice

Abstract

"Water resources management in Brazil has been based upon its legal characteristics of a common good. After the 1988 Federal Constitution established that the environment is a common good, a legal reform took place in order to better adjust the Brazilian environmental policy to this new regime. The first attempt of doing so was the 1997 Water Resources Policy Act that had its basis in the water's economic value, and the polluter and user pays principles. This paper aims to show the legal status of water resources management in Brazil, focusing on the economic instruments, such as water changes, as well as the political structure created to guarantee an envisaged quality of these resources. Taking as a case study the Paraiba do Sul river basin, located in the Southeast region, the paper presents some trends and constraints experimented by the first River Basin Committee that implement the legal provisions on water charges in Brazil."