Interbasin Water Transfers: The Brazilian Experience and International Case Comparisons

This paper critically examines Brazil’s transbasin diversion experiences and two select, large-scale transbasin projects outside of Brazil. Rather than simply compare Brazil’s experiences with international cases, the authors explore the historical context of the projects, focusing on the water reso...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water resources management 2011-06, Vol.25 (8), p.1915-1934
Main Authors: de Andrade, José Geraldo Pena, Barbosa, Paulo Sergio Franco, Souza, Luiz Carlos Alves, Makino, Daniel Lucas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric Sciences
Basins
Best practice
Civil Engineering
Comparative analysis
Debates
Decision making
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Economic development
Environment
Environmental law
Exact sciences and technology
Funding
Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences
Hydrogeology
Hydrology. Hydrogeology
Hydrology/Water Resources
Infrastructure
Politics
River basins
Rivers
Studies
Water diversion
Water resources
Water resources management
Water supply
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper critically examines Brazil’s transbasin diversion experiences and two select, large-scale transbasin projects outside of Brazil. Rather than simply compare Brazil’s experiences with international cases, the authors explore the historical context of the projects, focusing on the water resources and environmental regulatory and institutional frameworks in place during the initial proposals and how they influenced the projects’ development and completion rates. Huge investments, the lengthy time span between the date of the initial project proposals and the start of construction, the need to garner public and political support, and more recently, the need to fulfill national and regional environmental laws are major factors underlying heated public debates about the proposed projects. After a broad discussion about the subject, the authors examine a recently approved large-scale Brazilian project, the Sao Francisco river transbasin diversion. This river diversion project is considered crucial to the economic development of Brazil’s semi-arid northeastern region. Despite the fact that this government-funded project was debated for several decades among the various stakeholders, it was approved under Brazil’s newly formed water resources regulatory and environmental framework, which enabled improvements in various key technical aspects of the project, and greater involvement of various key social players.
ISSN:0920-4741
1573-1650
DOI:10.1007/s11269-011-9781-6