WATER GOVERNANCE IN THE STATE OF SAO PAULO, BRAZIL: FIRST PERCEPTIONS AND FURTHER REFLECTIONS
Resumo
The world water crisis has been regarded as a governance crisis by some authors. They sustain that the way to improve the water quality and availability is to improve the water governance. Although the term governance is still not a consensus, it is well accepted that it is truly necessary to improve it in order to get good water management in four identified dimensions: environmental, social, economic and political. We have analysed two dissertations which show quite different opinions about the current state of Water Governance by watershed committees in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. We have shown that it is primordial to adopt a constructivist paradigm to promote a better governance. Finally, we suggest that MCDA (multiple criteria decision aid) can provide us with this new paradigm to improve the water governance, besides other complex contexts.
Keywords: Governance. Water Management. Sustainable Development.