Groundwater legislation and protection polices in Brazilian and international sceneries: trends and practical results

Abstract

This paper, based on extensive literature review, presents important examples of public policies and legislations related to the protection of groundwater resources applied in the European Union, in the countries of North America and in Brazil, its current implementing situation, the conflicts generated along that process and also the practical results in terms of resource management. In Brazil, as in the international scenery, the use of natural resources protection policies includes, among others, the application of the principle of prevention, the principle of precaution and the pollutant-payer principle. Furthermore, the overall tendency is to consider the management of land use and occupation as a coherent form of protecting groundwater resources. In the current stage of implantation of groundwater legislation in Brazil, there is a growing concern of how precarious and, at the same time, invaluable is the knowledge and the monitoring (hydrochemical or hydrodynamic) of groundwater resources. The effective management of those resources requires investments in monitoring nets, hydrogeological cartography and the formation of a critical mass of qualified professionals to accomplish such tasks. Keywords: Water resources legislation, aquifers, groundwater protection.