An Assessment of Undergraduates’ Perception on Water Resources Management in Pernambuco’s Semiarid Region

Eraldo Gomes De Souza Jr,Sandro Valença,Daniella Ramos Da Silva,Gabriel Da Silva Belo,Francisco Ricardo Bezerra Fonseca,Maria José De Oliveira Monteiro

doi:10.51359/2594-8040.0.245681

Eraldo Gomes De Souza Jr, Sandro Valença + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.51359/2594-8040.0.245681

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Abstract

The aim of this paper was to explore undergraduates’ perception on water resources management in Pernambuco’s semiarid region, located in the northeastern part of Brazil. The discussion addressed here is mainly focused on water scarcity, water waste and effluent reuse policies. A basic qualitative research was undertaken. The research corpus was composed by undergraduate students of the Academic Centre of Agreste at the Federal University of Pernambuco. The data collection was carried on by semi-structured interviews with the students, which were submitted to qualitative analysis. The findings are suggestive that: (i) the inefficient and ineffective resources management is more severe than the small amount of water that impinges such a semiarid region; (ii) undergraduates are unaware about the range of alternatives to reduce water waste; and, lastly, (iii) they understand the benefits concerning the effluent reuse processes, however, it is necessary to make people aware that the system needs financial investments and security, which will increase the social commitment to suggest sustainable solutions. These findings unveiled the need for this university to promote more educational efforts — whether trainings, or courses, or modules, or policies —, aiming to increase the levels of their awareness on such this subject, so as to decrease water waste in this region.

Highlights

Water resources management (WRM) refers to a set of legal, institutional, administrative, technical and social organization policies, which aims to regulate and define the use and preservation of hydric resources1 so as to ensure their sustainability (Garjulli, 2003)
About the attention that water scarcity receives from society, the subjects (S) of GA claim that it depends on the region where people live
For them, those in the semiarid areas of the Northeast are more sensitive to the drastic limitations of water resources

Summary

Introduction

Water resources management (WRM) refers to a set of legal, institutional, administrative, technical and social organization policies, which aims to regulate and define the use and preservation of hydric resources so as to ensure their sustainability (Garjulli, 2003). In Brazil, the creation of the National Water Resources Policy — shortly abbreviated as PNRH —, set forth by law n° 9.433 of 1997 (Brasil, 1997), represented a pivotal improvement in the river basins management. This policy is grounded on three main pillars: participation, decentralization and integration. 128) states that: the most lacking aspect in such a semiarid region ―[...] is not water [in itself], but a cultural standard that adds confidence and improves the efficiency of the organizations [...] involved in the water business‖ It is a matter of finding alternatives to combat water scarcity, but rather of learning how to live and cope with it (Silva, 2003; 2007; Tundisi, 2008)

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