The Basic information about Brazil is covered first. Brazil has 190 million inhabitants. This is the 5th largest in the world. Brazil also has three levels of government. These levels include 1 Federal district, 26 states, and 5,561 municipalities. Brazil has five main geographical regions. These regions are the North, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast, and South. Brazil also has five main types of climate. These include hot and humid, mild and humid, cold and humid, dry, and polar and alpine. The next topic discussed is water governance. According to UNDP (2013) Water Governance Facility (WGF), " Water governance is defined by the political, social, economic and administrative systems that are in place, and which directly or indirectly affect the use, development and management of water resources and the delivery of water service delivery at different levels of society." Water governance deals with three main aspects. The first is the equity and efficiency in water. The second is the establishment and execution of water policies. This aspect deals with creating laws of water distribution, enforcing these laws, and giving punishment to those that do not follow the set policies. Water governance also deals with societal roles with water and distribution (private, government, and civil societies). This means that all levels of society are given a certain amount of water to be used, and that this limit must not be exceeded (UNDP,2013) Next, the importance of water in sustaining life is discussed. For a single pound of food, 1,000 km of water is needed. Also, 2.5 thousand cubic meters of water are needed to sustain life (per person). Fifteen thousand square meters of water are used for the average standard of living (Folegatti, 2013). Water in Brazil is a very critical issue. This is not just for Brazil's sake, but for the world's as well. Brazil contains 12% of the world's freshwater (Folegatti, 2013). For this reason, establishing and adhering to water policies is incredibly important. Water governance in Brazil deals with three bodies of water. These are the Piracicaba River, the Capivari River (Rio de Capivari), and the Jundai River Basin, also known as the PCJ Basin (Folegatti, 2013). There are many current conflicts arising when dealing with water use. The first is the development of water management systems. The next is community participation. It is hard to get all of the people in Brazil to adhere to the policies set for water distribution. Another conflict is the development of water management system. The law 9433/'97 and their tools for water system management also is a matter of conflict. This law is also known as the National Hydrological Resources Law. This law establishes guidelines for a regulatory framework of water. Also, another conflict is the testimony of participation on the basin. Water charge considering conservation is also a problem. With this, Brazil has to determine how much water can be used by its population and how much should be left untouched. If the wrong balance is left, Brazil will either have human fatalities or it will cause ecological damage on the natural regions of Brazil. The final conflict discussed is the water use in Brazil agriculture. This means balancing the use of water in agriculture to be able to sustain life (Folegatti, 2013) Next, the Piracicaba River is discussed. The Piracicaba River is the confluence (union) of the Jaguari and Atibaia . The Piracibaba River is the highest source of economic development per capita of the country. A total of 7% of the Brazilian GDP (100 billion dollars) is due to the Piracicaba River (Folegatti, 2013). Some of the problems facing water governance include dense forest disappearing, intense population, and too much pressure on natural resources (Folegatti, 2013). Population growth stress is one of the most pending matters that Brazil faces. In 30 years, the world is expected to have 3 million new inhabitants. This means 5.5 million more (94% urban). Also, 65% of population will be existing in 10 countries. Since the population rises more stress is put on the agriculture portion of Brazil's economy. As stated before, agriculture uses a huge amount of the water in Brazil (a total of 70%) (Folegatti, 2013) When population increases, the need to feed more individuals increases as well, causing more water to be used. A huge water resource that can be used is in the Amazon. The Amazon contains 73% of the water (Folegatti, 2013) . This leads to region extremes. The north contains the most water by far, but only a small portion of the population (7%) The southeast has a greater population, yet trying to get water to these peoples is proving to be a difficult matter (Folegatti, 2013). A problem arises when trying to get densely populated areas the water that they need, especially when such resources are far away.

• published: 02 Aug 2013
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