Percepção ambiental dos usuários da água da bacia hidrográfica do Rio Pardo / RS : as estiagens no período 2010 a 2020.

Abstract

The present dissertation had as its theme the environmental perception of water users about the droughts. In the last decade, two more expressive droughts caused important losses in the economy of municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul due to the lack of water resources for irrigation in agriculture and compromised public supply. As the drought theme is associated with water availability, the hydrographic basin was listed as a planning area in the research, as recommended by Federal Law 9,433/1997, which deals with the National Policy on Water Resources. The objective of this research was to investigate the environmental perception of water users in the Rio Pardo hydrographic basin about the droughts in the period from 2010 to 2020. The sample consisted of 32 interviews, comprising twenty-four technicians from city halls linked to the supply theme; six rural producers, three with irrigation and three without irrigation; a representative of users in the ice manufacturing industry and a Regional Superintendent of Companhia Riograndense de Saneamento. The approach method used was based on the constructivist current of Environmental Sociology, whose environmental problems are the result of multifaceted social construction processes. According to the answers obtained, it was possible to verify that there is no specific public policy for droughts, but there are emergency actions at the state and municipal levels to mitigate the problems arising from the phenomenon. Respondents perceive the effects of droughts on their professional and personal lives, but are still focused on emergency actions offered by state institutions. It was found that the trend of the most used solution to the problem is often what is being made available by the city hall or state government, such as drilling more artesian wells and donating cisterns. The existence of public policies for water management, such as Federal Law 9,433/1997, was not mentioned by them as a measure for articulating different institutions to mitigate the effects of droughts. Measures to adapt to the climatic event were not mentioned.