14
The News N° 25 - February 2015
LATIN AMERICA
Among the 26 States that make up the Fede-
ration of Brazil, the State of São Paulo
(248,808 km
2
, 41 million inhabitants) is
concentrating over a third of the national
wealth. Its capital, São Paulo, has more than
11million inhabitants.
The ”SERT” (Secretariat in charge of
Labor and Employment)
has for primary
role the professional integration of unem-
ployed people into the economy, and the
development of growth sectors, including the
water and sanitation sector featuring promi-
nently.
Brazil makes huge investments for the deve-
lopment of the water and sanitation sector;
according to data from PLANSAB, nearly
€
100 billion (R$ 304 billion) of investment
are planned over the period 2014-2033,
especially in urban sewerage.
According toofficial statistics (SNIS2012), the
total number of jobs in this sector is 726,586
employees, including nearly 238,000 in the
State of São Paulo alone.
In this very moving context, the ”SERT” deci-
ded to implement a largepilot project for staff
training, based on the results of
the feasibi-
lity studymade for theestablishment of
a Professional Water Training Center
(PWTC) in Brazil, in which the Interna-
tional Office for Water contributed in
late 2013 and early 2014.
Thus, this pilot project is an introduction to
the establishment of a PWTC in the State of
São Paulo, in line with the vision of the
8
th
WorldWater Forum tobeheld inBrasilia in
2018.
4
FRom one conTinenT To anoTHeR
Through
the ”Gaucho Forum of Commit-
tees”,
the 26 Basin Committees of the State
of Rio Grande do Sul have participated in a
Triangular Cooperation Program since Sep-
tember 2014. It allows them to benefit from
the experience of
the Loire-BrittanyWater
Agency and the International Office for
Water, in France, and the Intermunicipal
Consortium of Piracicaba, Capivari and
Jundiaí River Basins (PCJ), located in the
Brazilian State of São Paulo, which has
been one of the pilot river basins for
applying the Brazilian Law on Water
Resources.
A seminar addressing members of these
”Gaucho” Basin Committees was organized
inDecember 2014 in the cityof CaxiasdoSul,
on the occasion of the 50
th
anniversary of the
FrenchWater Law (1964) and the 20
th
anni-
versaryof theWater Lawof RioGrandedoSul
(1994).
It allowed focusing on the progress made in
the implementation of a decentralized and
participatory model of water management in
river basins in the State of RioGrande do Sul,
and estimating its prospects.
The city of Caxias do Sul, for instance, is loca-
ted upstream of the Taquari-Antas and Caí
basins, today characterizedby a strongpollu-
tion coming from industrial production and
intensive stock breeding. However, these two
rivers have their mouths in the Guaiba Lake
near the State capital, Porto Alegre, which
suffers from the consequences of these activi-
ties.
In this case, the lack of Water Agencies, yet
planned in the Lawof 1994,makes it difficult
toachieve results, in spiteof thedynamismof
the ”Gaucho” Committees.
The State Law plans these agencies to be
public institutions, while those established in
the rest of Brazil have been Associations,
more flexible and easy to create.
The experiences of partners in the coopera-
tion project have enlightened the water sta-
keholders of Rio Grande do Sul in the search
for solutions suited to their particular legal
and institutional context.
Instruments for integrated water resources
management, whether financial, or for plan-
ning and information purpose, are indeed
fundamental for theBasinCommittees to take
appropriatemeasures.
The Triangular Cooperation Program
will continue in 2015with a study tour
of the ”Gaucho” Committees in the PCJ
river basins, a second seminar in the
State of Rio Grande do Sul (this time in
the Rio Uruguai Basin), and technical
missions on several priority topics,
includingpollutionby nitrates.
4
Triangular cooperation in Brazil
Pig breeding in the Rio Taquari-Antas Basin
Brazil
A pilot project for training the staffs of the water sector:
Towards the establishment of a PWTC in the State of São Paulo
