The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide - Democrats Against UN ...

The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide
company to pump water from another river basin, the Atibaia River, to the Jundiaí-Mirim for local use.
Based on this history, and the limits imposed by existing jurisdictions, the six municipal districts in the region established a crossjurisdictional
initiative to comprehensively address the pollution and protection of the Jundiaí River basin.
Program Description
In 1983 the six municipalities in the Jundiaí basin, local industries, the state of São Paulo water company (CETESB), and local
community groups joined together to design and implement a comprehensive strategy for the recovery of the Jundiaí River and its
catchment basin. These parties agreed to an initial protocol that established a joint Commission to study the pollution problem, and
specified the terms and steps required of each party to develop the strategy. The Commission prepared a detailed map of all of the
industrial and domestic outflows and drains into the river and analyzed the water quality at different points along the river. The study
also presented the technical alternatives available for collecting and treating wastewater, ranging from individual facility control, to
separate domestic and industrial control, to the establishment of a basin-wide sewerage collection and treatment system. Cost
estimates for these different options were prepared. The different institutional and jurisdictional agreements required to undertake
these alternatives were also specified. Finally, the Commission also addressed the need for basin-wide coordination and enforcement
of land-use controls and environmental planning, which involves the community.
Based on the Commission’s findings, the Commission established an agreement among the six municipalities, CETESB, and local
industry representatives to create the Committee for Studies and Recovery of the Jundiaí (CERJU). CERJU is credited with
negotiating the commitment and investment of key institutions and jurisdictions to implement a common Action Plan.
CERJU’s plan had three major components, each of which had to be integrated with the other components and required coordination
on a basin-wide level.
The first component was the design and construction of an extensive industrial and domestic wastewater drainage and treatment
system, including local domestic treatment facilities and a regional industrial treatment facility. The second component was the
revision of local land use policies to support the protection of the river and fragile basin areas. The third component was the
establishment of an environmental planning process, focusing on the engagement of community groups and rural interests in
protecting forest areas essential to the health of the river basin.
These three components of the task were addressed through the establishment of local CERJU committees in each of the six
municipalities. These local committees consisted of municipal, state, industrial, and community representatives. Each municipality
worked with its local committee to design and construct the locally required sewerage infrastructure to reduce wastewater outflows
into the Jundiaí River and to transport effluents to a regional treatment plant. Local designs had to be carefully coordinated through
CERJU on a regional basis to avoid interference with local facilities, regional railroads and highways, and other impediments. The
state water company, CETESB, first constructed an experimental treatment station for regional treatment, and based on the
experiences with this station, a permanent regional station is being constructed with local funds. Approximately 97 percent of the
urbanized area in the river basin will be served by this infrastructure. The funding for the infrastructure component of the strategy
was divided among the key stakeholders. The local municipalities covered 39 percent of the costs among them, the state of São
Paulo covered 39 percent, and local private industries covered 22 percent through their purchase of local bonds.
To maximize the efficiency and strategic benefits of the infrastructure investment, the second and third components of CERJU’s
work—particularly the updating of local land use plans—were undertaken concurrently with the design and construction of the
sewerage system. Other projects included the construction of a retention dam for storm water runoff in the Jundiaí-Mirim basin,
which is used for riverside farm operations, and the establishment of a greenhouse and tree farming operation for the recovery of the
“matas ciliares” forest on the upper slopes of the Jundiaí basin. The environmental objective of both of these projects is to prevent
the siltation of the Jundiaí and its tributaries. Additional projects were undertaken with local communities to strengthen the
protection efforts for the “Serra do Japi,” a major forest reserve on the south side of the Jundiaí basin that has been threatened by
local agricultural and land uses. One of these projects was to create a new local citizen organization, called S.O.S. Serra do Japi,
which monitors protection and management of the forest reserve.
The result of the regional cooperation system created by CERJU and implemented by the local municipalities has been to
significantly remove wastewater outflows into the river, increase the supply of usable water in the basin, and set necessary policies
and programs in place to protect the long-term ecological stability of the basin. By 1992, in the city of Jundiaí alone, the pollution of
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