Abstract
Despite huge differences in population, household income and development levels, Australia and Brazil have some temporal convergences in their water governance systems. Over the last 20 years, both countries have significantly reformed their water policies and practices by introducing a legal foundation for more integrated and participatory catchment/basin management based on the best information available. A critical test of any water reform is how effective it is in meeting the challenges of extreme and unpredictable conditions of drought and floods, which are expected to increase under climate changes scenarios. This paper compared the contemporary water governance frameworks of Australia and Brazil in relation to three elements of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM): integration, participation, and information/knowledge. We focused on insights from Brazil’s recent drought and Australia’s fluctuating water crises to derive lessons and recommendations for future changes. Among the main recommendations, we stress the need for both systems to improve effective participation and to embrace a more comprehensive approach to cope with water scarcity in future scenarios. Furthermore, water related decisions should be based on a transparent and well informed process, and take into account the lessons from similar situations worldwide in order to avoid unnecessary or ineffective measures. As demonstrated in the Australian case during the Millennium Drought, the most effective initiatives were those involving government, the private sector and society to achieve a more sustainable consumption pattern in all sectors. There is much to learn from the Brazilian and Australia experiences in water reforms and crises, but it is imperative to understand the social, economic and environmental context within which these took place. Continuing to develop the capacity and willingness of researchers and policy makers to work together can make an important contribution towards meeting the growing and spreading challenges in water resource management around the world.
Highlights
Following increasing environmental degradation, associated with mass consumption by the global society, the Earth’s water resources face a serious threat
In Brazil, relevant examples include the water diversion work on the São Francisco river, the final benefits of which are concentrated in the cities in the northeast of the country, where water consumption is extremely wasteful; the construction of large hydroelectric dams in Amazonia, which will generate energy to supply inefficient consumption in the southeast region of Brazil and some industrial sectors which have historically benefitted from energy subsidies [62]; and, recently, the water diversion project in the Paraíba do Sul watershed to the metropolitan region of São Paulo city, to cope with increasing water demand and a severe drought event; among others
The devastating floods of 2010 and 2011 relieved Australia of one of its most challenging droughts, and at the same time raised a new set of questions about how well Australia’s water policy and practice was prepared for the inevitable cycling between droughts and floods that has been a persistent feature of the Australian landscape—a pattern that is likely to be exacerbated through the impacts of climate change
Summary
Following increasing environmental degradation, associated with mass consumption by the global society, the Earth’s water resources face a serious threat. In the last two years, Brazil has faced its most severe drought since the first historical record These trends should logically drive nations to a more resilient approach to water use and management as espoused by the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). While there are different institutional and economic capacities to address challenges, both Australia and Brazil have achieved significant milestones in water reforms over the past twenty years. These large countries, both with similar layers of government (federal, state, and municipality), took different institutional approaches to dealing with problems of a similar nature: water scarcity, droughts, floods and climate change.
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