Planning and Management of Lakes and Reservoirs: An Integrated Approach to Eutrophication


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<Planning and Management of Lakes and Reservoirs:
An Integrated Approach to Eutrophication>

CHAPTER 3. POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL, AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

3.5. Institutional Framework

3.5.3. River Basin Committees

Among the recent initiatives to bring the decision process to a local level, the establishment of river basin committees is an outstanding achievement. These committees can participate in the negotiations with maximum optimization, and advance plans for future actions. In Brazil, in several states, river basin committees were established with the following representation: one- third for state government, one-third for municipalities located in the watershed, one-third for stakeholders, universities, organized groups with local interests and other associations. Box 3.5 provides an example for São Paulo State in Brazil.

The establishment of initiatives at international watersheds also shows a long history of negotiations and institutional organization. The La Plata River Basin in South America is an example of such an organization.

Box 3.5 São Paulo State

A very illustrative example of the adequate functioning of a river basin committee is the Piracicaba watershed case study, described by Porto (1998). A summary is given:

The Piracicaba watershed has an area of 15,200 km² located in the eastern portion of São Paulo State.

There are 57 urban areas with a population of 4 million inhabitants. The scarcity of water is due to excessive use, result of large-scale industrialization, agribusiness activity, and urban development. Use and availability are at a desequilibriun and 33m³/s are diverted to the São Paulo Metropolitan area. The Piracicaba - Capivari - Jundiai consortium was the first to be established in 1993. The committee has 48 members. The actions proposed were (Porto, 1998):

to decentralize management of the water resources, with public participation and integration of water quantity and quality aspects;
to implement a bulk water-charging system;
to implement a cost sharing process in multiple-use water resources works;
to coordinate action in critical events;
to allocate water use with the objective of maximizing social benefits;
to establish priority criteria to allocate state funds for investment; and
to arbitrate on conflicts between users.

During the first four years, the committee approved watershed management plans, established the priority criteria to invest state funds and, most important of all, solved several conflict problems between users through negotiation.

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