Abstract
Technocratic decision making has been long criticized for dampening participation and limiting the range of adaptive choices through its overreliance on infrastructure-based solutions. There has been growing attention to how technocratic approaches shape long-term resilience of water systems, especially under the threat of climatic change impacts. In Brazil, even under its highly decentralized and participatory water management system, technical expertise and science-based decisions have been often promoted as a desirable mechanism to insulate governance outcomes from the country's prevailing clientelistic and rent-seeking politics. Yet, Brazilian river basins continue to struggle with long-standing problems (such as universal access to sanitation) and increasing challenges for guaranteeing water provision under recurrent drought. In this study, we examine how technocratic insulation, different ways of knowing (WoKs), and participatory governance shape long-term resilience in one of Brazil's most important river basins, the Piracicaba-Capivari-Jundiaí (PCJ). By taking an in-depth look at how the PCJ River Basin's governance system responded to the 2014 Brazilian water crisis, we seek to understand how planning decisions in the aftermath of the crisis were influenced by different actors, and how the outcomes of those decisions are likely to shape long term resilience. Based on 27 in-depth interviews with members of the PCJ River Basin Committees, we show how a distinct preference for infrastructure-based solutions to deal with on-going and upcoming challenges may be unsustainable under climate change as the basin's traditional technocratic approach failed both to insulate its decisions from politics and to explore adaptive water management solutions that might be key to shape long-term resilience.
Highlights
While Brazil has plenty of freshwater, more than 70% of the country’s runoff is concentrated in the Northern region, home to a small part of the population [Agência Nacional de Águas (ANA), 2018]
We identified, downloaded, and coded news articles and other media from national and local news outlets such as Folha de São Paulo, Estado de São Paulo and Correio Popular to document the water crisis and the political machinations influencing decision-making at the Piracicaba-Capivari-Jundiaí River Basin (PCJ) basin level
The PCJ Committees have not deployed ambitious nature-based solutions programs and social marketing campaigns, or programs aimed at reducing water consumption greatly depend on the Committees’ partners, municipalities, for success
Summary
While Brazil has plenty of freshwater, more than 70% of the country’s runoff is concentrated in the Northern region, home to a small part of the population [Agência Nacional de Águas (ANA), 2018]. The participatory river basin committees in the PCJ were powerless to stop the São Paulo State government from invoking emergency measures that re-centralized decisionmaking and rationed water at high social costs in a process widely recognized as lacking transparency, participation, and legitimacy (Empinotti et al, 2019; Quintslr et al, 2021). These extraordinary measures were a painful reversal of a decades-long process of decentralization started in the 1990s with the Brazilian water reform
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
