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WATER COOPERATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND POVERTY ERADICATIONlevel involving all stakeholders represented in state water councils.Members of state councils will be responsible for establishing policygoals for their own state systems based on the major water challengesidentified in their regions. In addition, state water councilswill be in charge of overseeing compliance with these goals on anannual basis, a condition that will determine whether or not statepublic authorities receive federal grants.This is part of a new goal-oriented initiative called Progestão(Pro-management). In this case, however, the ultimate goal is notto improve water quality by intervening on water-related policiesbut to induce continuing advancements in water policy througha permanent cooperation effort between the federal governmentand the states.Only states that become a party to the National Pact will be eligibleto receive funds from Progestão. Individual contracts will besigned with each partner state, in which agreed water policy goalswill be translated into contractual goals and obligations for a fiveyearperiod. Funds will be made available to state public authoritiesat the beginning of each fiscal year, according to the policy goalsthey have achieved the previous year.As such, non-state actors will play a greater role in Brazil’swater policy. Water cooperation among federal and state publicauthorities will no longer be restricted to isolated, dissociated andtime-limited initiatives.Challenges aheadKeeping to the old course of state-led and centralized waterpolicymaking would certainly be an easier political option in anewly-borne democratic regime. From the beginning, it was evidentthat involving citizens in water-related decision-making processesand coordinating state action in a three-tier system of governmentwould be a challenging task. Nonetheless, that was the option takenin 1988 by the framers of the new Brazilian Constitution and bylawmakers that, a few years later, enacted the first state water lawsand the National Water Act in 1997.It is still too early to say whether water managers in Brazil willcope with the challenge of implementing the envisioned watergovernance model. But it is certain that their chances of successdepend on their cooperation with each other. Water cooperation inBrazil will be crucial to securing the democratic values embeddedin its legal framework.Important steps have been taken in the right direction. Periodicmeetings and face-to-face interactions in councils and committeeshave provided some of the cement that made state and non-stateactors cooperate with each other – and cooperation among themimproved significantly over time. The continuing exercise of politicaljudgement, of questioning each other’s view on matters of watermanagement, of agreeing to disagree, of trying to build consensusand majorities – all this has contributed to reaching a new level ofwater governance in Brazil.But an even bigger challenge lies ahead: to promote cooperationon water throughout the federal system and across differentbranches of the public sector. Goal-oriented strategies such as OBAand PES have been used to integrate water-related policies with positiveresults so far. Now another results-driven programme will betested as a mechanism for integrating federal and state actions. Willit work? It is not possible to say at this moment, but considering thatIWRM is the missing part of Brazil’s democratic governance model,it is worth trying.Mexiana Island in the Amazon BasinWater Producer ProgramObjective: Improve water quality by tackling nonpointsources of pollution in rural areasStrategy: PESWater sectors/users involved: Irrigated agriculture andwater supply systemsThe Water Producer Program was launched by theNational Water Agency of Brazil in 2006 with three mainobjectives: conservation of riparian forests, improvementof soil management in rural areas and recovery ofdegraded areas in watersheds. It aims to substitutecostly instruments of control based on coercive andregulatory actions with the use of less hands-on publicgovernance tactics that rely on economic instrumentsand inter-organization networks. Payment is taken forwatershed services as a strategy to overcome commonbarriers to resolving disputes, bringing stakeholderstogether as partners in joint projects to preventenvironmental degradation.The first steps of the programme involve a generalassessment of major environmental problems,investment needs and, most importantly, potentialbuyers and sellers. This initial assessment is a keyelement in defining targets, service baselines and overallprocedures for monitoring and assessing compliance.Negotiations then take place between upstream serviceproviders (landowners) and downstream water users(water supply systems) and, if agreement is reached,payment schemes are set up for recovering degradedareas or preventing environmental damage.Key resultsFrom 2006 to 2012, the programme supported 20PES initiatives in 13 different states. These includethe Water Conservationist Project, the first water PESscheme established in Brazil, which is known for itsstrong engagement of municipal government and localstakeholders. In all, these initiatives cover an areaof 306,000 hectares, including regions that supplywater to seven state capital cities (São Paulo, Rio deJaneiro, Brasilia, Rio Branco, Palmas, Campo Grandeand Goiania). Around 2,000 landowners are presentlyreceiving payments for watershed services.Image: Rui Faquini courtesy of the National Water Agency[ 228 ]