A formação de mercados informais de água como alternativa ao colapso do abastecimento público em Cuité - PB

Abstract

Water resources are presented unequally between regions, and consequently, there are many studies that aim to verify natural phenomena that determine water scarcity in spaces and for the technical-scientific suggestions of mitigating solutions as normative examples of efficient forms of capture or water storage. Considered as a central element of urban cohesion and the reproduction of social power, when water acquired the status of a marketing element, it brought with it new forms of conflicts that are articulated on macro scales, reflecting on governance and management standards, being responsible for the great privatization movements governed by the neoliberalizing articulations, and for local scales, produce conflicts in the use and disposition of water. The city of Cuité, in the interior of Paraíba, constitutes the stage for the representation of these conflicts, since the water supply was interrupted by CAGEPA from 2015, bringing with it a role of informal private agents for the sale of water at various technical levels, ranging from from fixed suppliers; cars with water receptacles and private water pipes. Thus, this study aimed to interpret this spatial context, how the State regulates (or not) this market dynamics, and what are the structural changes in these locations, stratifying how the various agents adapt to this informal market. The research was theoretically imbricated in political ecology, and had as guiding hypotheses the process of water scarcity as a socially determined product in opposition to the vision of scarcity under the paradigm of supply, and the hydrosocial cycle in the re-productions of territorialities of water sales. . As a methodological proposition, the research was conducted by the historical intersection of forms of supply in the city, and with temporal geo-environmental data, followed by the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 7 different water sellers. The data indicate that these sellers observed the most diverse financial opportunities in the collapse of public supply, and that if the State returned with the public supply of supply, there could be low levels in the dissemination of these informal markets, requiring, among other things, service specialization. The final considerations pointed out that regardless of the irregularity of these markets, and the lack of sanitary control of many commercialized waters, these markets emerge as the only alternatives for water supply in the municipality, and it is up to the consenting State, to offer regulations and supports that fit the reality. emerging location. It is up to this State to play a leading role in the governance and management of water, underpinning the population's right to water here called water citizenship.