Drought and governance impacts
on water scarcity: an analysis in
the Brazilian semi-arid
Silva et al (June 2015)
Kimberly Duong
April 6, 2016
Background
• Impacts of extreme events (such as drought) vary with
climate change, but also management and governance
• Authors use Ostrom*’s framework for analyzing socialecological systems, which describe interactions
between resource systems, governance systems, and
resource users
• Analysis of 2 extreme periods
– 1997 – 2000 (chosen because Brazil’s new water policy was
young)
– 2012 – 2015 (drought)
•
*Elinor Ostrom was an American political economist who contributed literature regarding the influence of society
on the sustainability of natural resources. She identified 8 underlying design principles characterizing robust
common property institutions and built a framework for analyzing social-ecological systems.
Definitions
• Social Ecological Systems
• “the subset of social systems in which some of the interdependent
relationships among humans are mediated through interactions with
biophysical and non-human biological units” (Anderies et al. (2004))
• Governance vs. Management
• "Governance" is the strategic task of setting the organization's goals,
direction, limitations and accountability frameworks. "Management"
is the allocation of resources and overseeing the day-to-day
operations of the organization.
• One way to think about this is that Governance determines the
"What?" - what the organization does and what it should become in
the future. Management determines the "How?" - how the
organization will reach those goals and aspirations.
• Source: ACT Council of Social Services Inc
Definitions
• Authors used Ostrom’s institutional design
principle of “clearly defined boundaries”
– “individuals or households who have rights to
withdraw resource units from the common-pool
resource (CPR) must be clearly defined as must
the boundaries of the CPR itself”
• This is a principle used to describe the
importance of having explicit rights for water
resources (during both droughts and rainy
periods)
• Authors analyzed 4 federal reservoirs in the Piranhas and Paraibas river basins,
each ranging from 80 – 1358 hm3 (hm = hectometer = 100 m)
• More emphasis placed on Epitácio Pessoa reservoir, which suffered water
crises in both time periods 1997-2000 and 2012-2015
Brazilian Water Management
• Brazilian Water Policy and its National Management
System established in 1997
• National Management System is composed of:
– National Water Agency
• Responsible for water management in the 4 reservoirs in this study
• Issues water permits, which are designed to ensure quantitative and
qualitative control of water use
– State Water Agency of Paraíba
– Water Basin Committees of Paraíba River and PiancóPiranhas-Açu River
– National and State of Paraíba’s Water Councils
• Right to water resources can be partly or fully
suspended during (natural) disasters
• Human and livestock water use have priority over other
uses
Piranhas River
Basin
Resource
Systems
Paraiba River
Basin
Social-Ecological
System
Resource units
Reservoirs in
these river basins
Urban/rural
supply
Uses
Irrigation
Fisheries
1997-2000 “young” water policy
2012-2015 Drought Period
• January 2011 – October 2014 storage info for the Epitácio Pessoa Reservoir
• Many unauthorized users withdrew water for irrigation
• Even water supply company withdrawals exceeded their water permit allowance
• Figure 5. Describes the Epitácio Pessoa Reservoir enforcement campaigns by the
National Water Agency to prevent water users from using more than they are
allotted by their permits.
• The red dotted line shows the very considerable but short-lived decrease in water
withdrawals (labeled as discharge on y axis).
• Shows importance of permanent and continuous enforcement that is considered
legitimate by the resource users
• Blue area denotes the water storage in the Epitácio Pessoa reservoir. Green area
denotes irrigated areas.
• By end of 2014, irrigation withdrawals for this reservoir were formally banned.
Authors claim that the persistent unauthorized use resulted from lack of
enforcement and water management discussions
Conclusion
• Reducing the impacts of drought or other
extreme events requires proper oversight from
water management agencies as well as consistent
and permanent enforcement of policies that
prevent water users from withdrawing more than
they are allowed.
• Without “clearly defined boundaries” that are
firmly enforced and clear communication and
discussion between water managers and users,
the impacts of drought can be exacerbated
beyond the effects of extreme weather.
References
• Silva, A. C. S., C. O. Galvão, and G. N. S. Silva.
"Droughts and governance impacts on water
scarcity: an analysis in the Brazilian semi-arid."
Journal: Proceedings of the International
Association of Hydrology 369 (2015): 129-134.
• Anderies, J. M., Janssen, M. A., and Ostrom,
E.: A framework to analyze the robustness of
social-ecological systems from an institutional
perspective, Ecol. Soc., 9, 18, 2004.