Maria Adriana De Freitas Mágero Ribeiro,Zédna Mara de Castro Lucena Vieira,Dayse Luna Barbosa,Márcia Maria Rios Ribeiro, UFCG, Engenharia Civil, drickadefreitas@yahoo.com.br
Abstract:
The Brazilian Water Resources Policy considers water as an economic good and so its management must be decentralized and participatory. The State of Paraíba, Northeastern Brazil, has already approved water charges to be applied within its territory. This process, following the Brazilian water policy’s guidelines, had the participation of the State’s basin committees. Paraiba’s water charges, therefore, can be considered legitimated by water users, civil society and government. This paper presents the results of a research made at the Region of the Lower Course of Paraíba River, through questionnaires application, aiming to verify people's knowledge about the instrument of charging, as well as the acceptability of the already approved values. According to the results, this economic instrument is little known by the population. Since the success of water charging depends on its acceptance by society it is necessary to adopt strategies which increase its rate of acceptability.
Palavras-chave: Acceptability, Water charges, River Basin Committee