As múltiplas territorialidades do planejamento e gestão das águas: olhares cruzados entre as regiões metropolitanas de Belo Horizonte e Paris

Abstract

The increasing use of water resources, in all its multiplicity of uses, occurred as a complex process characterized by inadequate control. Individual, industrial and communal interests have outweighed the need of balanced water systems, especially in metropolitan areas, where there is a greater concentration of people and economic activities. The lack or deficiency of integrated public policies, as well as their inadequate monitoring and oversight, has facilitated the overuse of certain activities like pollution, disposal of untreated effluents into water courses and intensive soil erosion. Thus, this study has analyzed the planning and management of water resources within the metropolitan areas of Belo Horizonte and Paris - the river basins of the rio das Velhas and Orge-Yvette, respectively. Assuming that planning and management of water resources, as well as their uses, involve multiple territorialities on different scales, one sought to understand the political geography of water in both regions. The study aimed to increase the understanding of the decision-making processes, given the barriers to integrated management, the possible asymmetrical power relations and challenges faced by the joint work of institutions that operate on different but overlapping scales in their respective river basins. The study is supported by the theoretical framework of geographic category of analysis territory, and adopts qualitative methodological procedures, notably interviews with key actors in both basins. The cross analysis about the two metropolitan regions brought rich elements to enhance the debate and demonstrated the complexity regarding the resolution of environmental problems as well as political-institutional conflicts. On the other hand, the high concentration of resources, skilled personnel and institutions responsible for water resources management, implies that metropolitan regions are characterized as strategic and priority areas for investments aimed at the protection and restoration of watersheds. There is a clear overlap of territoriality with consequences for water resources management: integration difficulties; conflicts of interests; power and territorial conflicts; the many contradictions and dichotomies involving different ways of thinking and acting in regard to the areas under analysis; and between the urban analytical standpoint and the environmental point of view, among others. The cross analysis of both regions led, therefore, to the understanding of similar questions and hypotheses, despite socio-economic, cultural and historical differences.