Conflitos Socioambientais e Recursos Hídricos: a Barragem do Guapiaçu e a atuação do Comitê da Bacia Hidrográfica da Baía Da Guanabara (RJ)

Abstract

This research aims to critically discuss the opportunities and limits of performance of Watershed Committees, regarding the promotion of negotiation of environmental conflicts related to water resources, considering the notion of democratic governance, able to recognize multiple territories that affect the ways of use of water and the diversity of users. It is argued that there is an intimate relationship between water governance and environmental conflicts in relation to its multiple uses, and that the current institutional framework presents innovative and participatory trading methods, aimed at incorporating key elements such as democratic management, citizen participation and decentralization of political decisions in order to ensure the involvement of multiple users in river basin management. River basin committees have an important assignment in this process, since they act as spaces to promote the discussion between the different actors involved in water management, providing the necessary inputs for decisionmaking related to water planning. However, in practice, these agencies face enormous challenges because they have strong decision-making powers, but limited implementation capacity. In any case, the assessment of the potential contribution of these instruments to strengthen the power and autonomy of citizens, or if they actually play a role of coercion and consensus, legitimizing the government guidelines, will depend on the analysis of each particular case, considering the specificities of each territory and each Watershed Committee. For this, we selected the case study for the construction of Guapiaçu dam, expected to be installed in the municipality of Cachoeiras de Macacu - RJ, in view of the need to define alternatives for the water supply of the eastern portion of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro.