Water governance and the hydrosocial territory of the Teles Pires River Basin in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Over the past three decades, a series of global initiatives have promoted changes in water governance adopted by many countries and, in Brazil, resulted in the approval of the Water Resources National Policy Act (Law 9433/1997). Since the passing of this law, tangible progress has been made, but there is a lack of effective implementation, particularly in the Amazon Hydrographic Region. This chapter's main objective is to evaluate water governance in this region and the identity and construction of the hydrosocial territory, specially in the Teles Pires River Basin (TPRB) in Mato Grosso State. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with members of the three River Basin Committees installed in the TPRB; meetings were observed and documents were analysed. The governance model is centralised by the government and water management is partially implemented. This governance, together with another four aspects, is the key factor that shapes the construction of the hydrosocial territory and defines its goal, type and identity, which are strongly related to the history of land use and the neoliberal economic model.