Dominialidade das águas: o caso do Ceará

Abstract

The State of Ceará has currently a water resource policy that can be considered advanced if compared to international standards. It includes a company in charge of water supply management jointly with Basin Committees. The State of Ceará pioneered water use charge in Brazil to solve the State's water imbalance problem. In this context, we will make an analysis of Article 1, item I, of Law No. 9,433/97 and Articles 20, item III, and 26, item I of the Federal Constitution. Under legal terms, as provided in the Federal Constitution of 1988, fluent, emerging and stored surface and ground waters are included among the State's assets, except for those derived from federal works, pursuant to the law. To Cid Tomanik Pompeu (1987), removing stored waters derived from federal works from the State's domain not only is vague since that does not clarify the owner of that domain, but also establishes an unnecessary fragmentation of state water domain, as the owners of such reservoirs had already been awarded a special use of such waters by the Federal Government, in case of electric power production, and by the State, in all other cases. By analyzing legally and intuitionally the matter, we are proposing changes to the responsibility for water resource custody and management, as water domain implies that this good is managed by the State for the collective benefit of its inhabitants.