Water Reform across the State/Society Divide: The Case of Ceará, Brazil

Abstract

This paper focuses on partnerships across the state-society divide in the management of bulk water in the state of Ceará, in Northeast Brazil. It examines the creation of Users' Commissions in two of Ceará's river basins-the Lower Jaguaribe/Banabuiú and the Curú. It is argued that the presence of synergy across the state-society divide is critical to guarantee meaningful public participation. In turn, meaningful participation improves decision making at the river basin level and supports positive values in policy making such as decentralization, equity, accountability and transparency.

Adaptation as a Water Resource Policy Challenge —Institutions and Science

“…Results have thus far yielded a willingness among farmers to share management of local water supplies, while the state water management authority permits locals to monitor conditions. Local users, for their part, hold greater trust in state-level information [30,31].…”

Integrating water and agricultural management: Collaborative governance for a complex policy problem

“…In England, for instance, the government department with responsibility for sustainable rural development recently published its strategy for water (Defra, 2008) setting out a vision that positions agricultural systems as central to the process of resolving competing issues of water supply and demand, and water quality and quantity by the year 2030. While priorities for action vary greatly according to political and material circumstances, parallel calls can be found elsewhere (Blanco, 2008;Conca, 2006;Faby et al, 2005;Lemos and Oliveira, 2005;Swatuk, 2005). Driven in part by the exigencies of an increasingly congested terrain of international agreements (such as the Convention on Biological Diversity) and laws (such as the pan-European Water Framework Directive), what holds this diversity together is the recognition that fragmented policy-making and implementation across the agricultural and water sectors continues to be a systematic and deeply institutionalised feature of natural resource management and, consequently, a major obstacle to the realisation of sustainable livelihoods and development.…”