Políticas públicas de gestão da água, segurança hídrica e a judicialização dos conflitos relativos ao acesso à água em Campina Grande/PB

Abstract

The present work proposes to study the relationship between water management, water access right and development in the city of Campina Grande - PB, with the following guiding questions: (1) How do you outline the water management regulations in Brazil? (2) How does water management with development in Brazil relate to the guarantee of water safety and citizenship? (3) How do legal actors, members of the Public Ministry and Public Defenders associate water management, the right to access to water and development? The methodology consisted of documentary analysis, focusing on two judicial processes whose contexts of convergence were the water crises experienced by the Municipality of Campina Grande in 1998 and 2017, in order to identify the relationship that these legal actors (Public Prosecutor and Public Defender) establish between water management, the right of access to water and development. The theoretical perspective adopted is based on the analytical current called Political Ecology. Among the results of the research the following stand out: (1) The legal discipline on water management is not sufficient to guarantee the right of access to the resource; (2) The problem of water shortages in the municipality of Campina Grande in the dry season has always been solved in a palliative manner, without concrete and effective public policies; (3) The legal field is designed as an alternative to deliberate on strategic actions to guarantee access to water due to the inefficiency of political-administrative spaces; (4) The water management agenda is determined by the struggles between political actors. When conflicts related to this management are judicialized they respond to conflicting interests in the political arena at various levels of government.