La gestión del recurso hídrico en Brasil y Colombia, una comparación de sus instrumentos

Brazil and Colombia are considered countries with high water availability. They currently present great advances in the effort of Integrated Water Resource Management, although they still exhibit common problems in relation to the various users and uses within their territories. This work comparatively analyzes five management instruments (planning, classification of water bodies, concessions and charges for water use and finally the use of information systems on water resources), renewing the discussion about the established management models, denoting deficiencies in the application of the regulations for both countries. In Brazil, the system is more mature and has more guarantees of citizen participation. The Colombian system is at an earlier stage of development, with a strong connection to environmental management. The adoption of the watershed as a management unit is a conflict point for not coinciding with the traditional political-administrative limits. The Alto Lebrija river basin, in Colombia and the Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiai basins, in Brazil, are taken as local examples for a better understanding of the proposed comparison.