Água doce no Brasil: razões de uma nova política

Abstract

Brazil has new water legislation. This study examines why the 1934 Water Code became inadequate and the reasons that led to the National Water Resources Policy, according to the Law 9433 (January 8, 1997). It is motivated by a central question: does state intervention intend to assure water to actual and future generations, in the amounts and with the quality required for it various use? The primary principle is that society comprises individuals, groups and classes which have different, frequently opposed, interests; public policies, institutions and laws express and intervene in these conflicts. The environmental crisis and the sense of proposals aiming its solution must be considered in the context of the complex links between State, society, individuals and nature. Water policy constitutes a decisive intervention in the appropriation and use of a resource essential to life and production that is becoming scarce. Thus, it is a relevant element for appropriation of labor results and for power relations. The present study points out the historical character of water scarcity worldly and nationally, discuss the rationality of the society-nature relations and the evolution of Brazilian State commitment to the so-called natural resources, in particular, water resources. It intends to demonstrate that the politics of water appropriation and management are rationally designed and fulfill the reproduction necessities of the capitalist system. The Water Code matched the industrialization efforts of the Vargas period. The reflection on the basis of the 1997 Law shows its adaptation to capital needs, at the end of the XX century, and the contradictions that permeate such process. This Law assimilates the world hegemonic conception of State and environmental policies and is similar to diverse countries ongoing reforms, which invariantly tend to expand market. The new policy pretends to be democratic and decentralized, as well, as favor popular participation. In fact, it is a vigorous state intervention. The water legislation,simultaneously, alleviates the government from its constitutional duties and increases the possibilities of control over this vital resource. Despite the discourse of attending all Brazilians, the present Law is especially attentive to hegemonic interests, and it could become an important instrument for capitalistic expansion; it is to say, for the destruction of nature and, in particular, water. However, considering water as public goods, the Law allows resistence figths against water’s commercialization.