Conflicts of Mineral Water Management in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil.

Abstract

Nowadays conflicts for the insertion of mineral water in the management of water resource are originated in models formulated at different moments of the Brazilian political history. The mineral water legislation (Mineral Water Code, 1945 and Mining Code, 1967) was created into centralized political governments, while the legislation of water resource possesses democratic, decentralized and multi-participative features (Federal Constitution, 1988, and Water Code, 1997). This study comes from an overall analysis of the historical registration of the policy evolution, which was based on the Federal Constitution and the Legislation regarding both mineral and water resources. These conflicts are very complex and severe, mainly caused by the following reasons: 1) mineral water has been considered an ore and legally it is not regarded as part of the water cycle; 2) mining areas and area with titles requested for mining have been blocked for land use, and 3) mining areas cover large areas of municipalities, constraining cities growth and occupying environmental protecting areas; 4) the creation of supplementary technical rules to attend present needs has caused conflicts with other ministry, state and municipality institutions, as Health Ministry, SERLA-RJ and fire department. This paper concludes that there is a need for inter institutional partnerships to manage the mineral water exploitation, according to their specific competences. The general management of the natural resources exploitation will be under the responsible Ministry (Energy and Mining Ministry).