Water Management in Shared Legal and Institutional Cases: Who Is Managing What Water?

Abstract

Countries which have implemented for the first time or reformulated their domestic water management policies after the 1970s-1980s have had the opportunity to choose from a series of water management models around the world. In 1997, the Brazilian Federal State defined (Law 9,433) the new water management model to be implemented throughout the country. However, since the 1988 Federal Constitution, several Brazilian States had already approved state legislation (re)organizing their water management systems. The result is a mosaic of water management institutions, which, in some river basins, arguably hold overlapping functions and responsibilities. Why have these overlapping water management models persisted? Why have they not been consolidated in one or just replaced one by another? The answers to these questions may shed some light over governments’ choices of water management models and the paths which the implementation of these models have followed (and are following). This discussion will be illustrated by the Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiaí River Basin case.