An outlet for water in the Northeast – 03/25/2024 – Shireen Mahdi

The challenges of access to water in the Northeast are nothing new for Brazilians. The region presents great physical and climatic, socioeconomic and landscape diversity.

Its location largely in the semi-arid region, however, means being exposed to low levels of precipitation and high rates of evaporation, great variability, intermittent rivers and little availability of groundwater, in addition to the frequent occurrence of droughts.

It is the region with the lowest Water Security index in Brazil, limiting its socioeconomic development. Historical challenges have contributed to a strong and traditional dependence on water infrastructure, whether for storage (dams and dams), treatment or water transport (channels and pipelines).

With around 18% of the country’s total area and a population of more than 54 million inhabitants (26.9%, 2022 data) mostly urban, the region urgently needs planning and actions to deal with the challenges, many of them heavily impacted by climate change.

Many of the advances in the development of water infrastructure in the NE have occurred in the last century and a half as a result of federal policies and investments. The National Water Resources Policy, approved in 1997, brought possibilities for advances in the institutional structure of states and expansion of capacity for water resources management, but important gaps still remain.

Regarding basic sanitation, for example, several programs were launched over the years, but the region made little progress, as studies indicate that 5 out of every 7 inhabitants were still without sewage collection, with low treatment rates, and 14 million inhabitants (25%) without access to treated water in 2020.

An integrated analysis of the northeastern context shows that the structural condition of water scarcity and droughts has been added to sanitation deficits, bottlenecks in management capacity and climate vulnerability, creating a whole new generation of challenges whose severity varies depending on the reality of the nine states that make up the region.

These common challenges and the sharing of river basins by states (called interfederative basins) require integrated and proactive (not reactive) solutions, whether in the form of common strategies for investments, sharing of data and information, governance models and even experiences.

Furthermore, integrative regional initiatives are becoming increasingly necessary and indispensable to support the discussion on water security at a strategic decision-making level.

This is the objective of the Water Security Initiative for the Northeast, launched this Tuesday (26) by the World Bank in conjunction with the Interstate Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Northeast, during an international seminar in João Pessoa.

The Initiative will contribute to dealing with growing challenges, by creating a path for the construction of integrated agendas of actions and investments in the field of water security, and supporting the articulated systematization of planning at state and federal levels, exploring potential synergies between states .

Improving long-term water security in Northeast Brazil will require more investment, better governance mechanisms and a stronger incentive framework for both water resources management and water supply.

Investments in infrastructure need to be accompanied by a sustainable strategy for management, operation and maintenance. This also includes planning for water allocation and investment in technologies to improve water use efficiency.

World Bank analysis shows, however, that limitations in personnel and management structures persist at the state level that impede the full capacity to manage existing infrastructure to maximize the delivery of benefits to society.

The impacts of climate change also impose the need for a closer look at the planning and execution of preparatory actions that seek to reduce the effects of droughts on people’s lives and the region’s economy.

If the challenges of access to water in the Northeast are not new, the approach to combating them needs to be. And the Water Security Initiative for the Northeast intends to promote it.

This article was written in collaboration with Paula Freitas (senior specialist in water resources management at the World Bank), Guilherme Marques and Cybelle Frazão (consultants specializing in water resources)

LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access five free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.