The regional issue in the new water and sanitation services national regulatory framework: towards a sustainable urban waters governance model: analisys of some actors and arenas in the State of São Paulo

• Grant number: 12/06682-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2012
• End date: July 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Public Policies
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Coutinho Vargas
• Grantee: Marcelo Coutinho Vargas
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to describe the institutional changes in the field of water resources and services management which are taking place in Brasil since the mid nineties, with the emergence of new laws, policies and arenas of decision involving several public and private actors, seeking to analyse how the new institutions may favor or hinder the development of sustainable water management and governance. With its analysis focused in the urban waters management, in the regional sphere, the proposed research aims to identify the potentialities and limits of the new Water and Sanitation Regulatory Framework to promote the progressive universalization of access to sustainable basic sanitation by means of new institutional arrangements created under this framework. It seeks to analyse the general principles and premises in which this regulatory framework are based, as well as its implementation challenges linked with water resources management system under specific empirical circumstances. Supposing that sustainable water management in highly urbanized riverbasins requires integration between water resources and basic sanitation actions and systems at the regional level, the research aims to analyse if some key actors are acting in this direction,in the light of a new governance approach, in different regions of the State of Sao Paulo, notably: the state's basic sanitation company (SABESP) and the Piracicaba riverbasin comittee and intermunicipal consorcium. (AU)