Planos diretores de recursos hídricos : a experiência gaúcha no período de 1994 a 2008.

Abstract

This thesis seeks to analyse the management of water resources, aiming to evaluate the performance of master plans for water resources, elaborated in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which occurred from 1994 to 2008. Searched for indicators of effectiveness of planning processes, aiming at evaluation and monitoring of those processes. We also studied plans for water management that are taking place at European basins as established by the European Water Framework Directive. This research has been directed to the Plan of the Guadiana river basin. In this paper we present the history of water management in Brazil, the development of the legislation, the administrative structure at national and state levels and the instruments of planning and management. Sought to understand the conceptual basis of the plans and the legal frameworks for the preparation of same. The evaluation of the planning process occurred through a methodology that consisted of three phases. The first phase was focused on information retrieval, in the second phase semi-structured interviews were applied to management and university consultants that were the technical responsibles for the plan, members of basin committees and government leaders who participated in the plan and the third phase was directed creating a set of indicators of effectiveness of the plans. The topics for evaluation of the plans were: a) social participation in the planning process, that presented as a result a greater participation and empowerment of the basin’s committee collegiate, as well as a bigger knowledge of the management of water resources system along the general population, b) the general technical quality of the plan that had a good performance, highlighting the need for a better solution between the duration of the contract and the planning process; and c) the organizational set-up of the plan, that revealed itself as the most problematic of the planning processes. This reflects the lack of human and material resources by the state and the need for complete structuring of the state system of management of water resources. It was also observed by analysis of the plans that there was process of maturation, learning in the their implementation. About the indicators, this thesis suggests the adoption of three categories, one related to the management system of water resources, one related to the environmental aspects of water resources and the last one related to socioeconomic issues.