Economic sustainability of water supply public policy in Brazil semiarid regions

Droughts affect semi-arid regions around the world, threatening economic activities and the lives of its inhabitants. In Brazil, 11% of the population inhabits the semiarid region and, despite several mitigation measures adopted by the State, it is classified as the Brazilian region of greatest social vulnerability, especially with regard to climate change. Throughout Brazilian history, several public policies aimed at water supply in the semiarid have failed for different reasons. Two recurring arguments are the lack of financial resources and maladministration. This paper presents the analysis of a public policy that aims to provide perennial and quality water, desalinating the local brackish underground water, the Água Doce Program (PAD). The methodology has a qualitative and exploratory character, through document analysis and literature review to understand the main strengths and weaknesses of the PAD. Finally, the theory of eco-development was used to discuss the economic sustainability of the policy. It was found that the continuous flow of public and private investments was a decisive element for the implementation of the technology during the initial moment of the transfer of responsibilities. However, with the reduction of public investment, management became local, with resources from the beneficiaries. The PAD presents advances in the field of the dissemination of technologies, mainly the Management Agreements. However, the absence of community empowerment and cooperative processes has resulted in disconnected systems that are unable to guarantee their economic sustainability. Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n.6, e65963435, 2020 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i6.3435 3

contribute to a better understanding of the program and possible improvements that may be made.

Água Doce Program
In 1996, the Programa Água Boa (PAB) was implemented to promote the desalination of brackish water from tubular wells in the semiarid. However, the inconsistency of state policies, the lack of adequate disposal of waste and poor capacity of the population to operate the systems caused strong obstacles to their success (Brasil, 2010).
In order to resume the initiative, the Ministry of Environment promoted the evaluation of the PAB and, from this, established partnerships with other entities to improve the proposed system, launching the initiative as the Programa Água Doce (Brasil, 2012). After the reformulation, the initiative was based on the premise that participatory and integrated management of the systems would be able to make the policy more successful. The Program was divided into six main components: Management; Studies / Research / Projects; Environmental Sustainability; Social Mobilization; Desalinization Systems and Concentrate Utilization Unit. In this context, Management and Social Mobilization are considered the biggest differentiations of the PAD from its predecessor. Each component is dependent on the progress and results of the others, and this work has focused on those most relevant to the discussion of the Program's economic sustainability.

Management and social mobilization
PAD uses local agreements (Management Agreements) as a management mechanism.
They lay the foundations for cooperation and management of desalination systems and production systems. Such mechanisms aim at the autonomy of communities, respecting the structures of social organization, identifying local leaders and harnessing the potential of traditional ways of overcoming social dilemmas. It is intended that social actors involved with systems management find their own solutions to their problems, and that pre made templates are not offered by the Program (Brasil, 2012).
The agreements are made up of rules, rights and duties for families, such as: the right to use desalinated water and the concentrate; instances to improve the agreement; conflict resolution and community monitoring of compliance with the agreement; equipment operating and maintenance costs; definition of fee for users; form of collection and the Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n.6, e65963435, 2020 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i6.3435 7 definition of value and responsibilities of states and municipalities. One of the goals of the PAD is that after three years, the benefited communities take over the management of their respective local systems (Brasil, 2012).
The PAD Base Document uses the experience of previous programs to differentiate Program mechanisms, pointing out that "installing or restoring desalination systems is not sufficient to guarantee the continued supply of good quality water to semiarid families." There is a need for management mechanisms to enable the continuity of actions and the resilience of communities.
The Program uses the author Sachs as the theoretical framework, which defines economic sustainability as practices that support long-term economic growth without negatively impacting social, environmental, and cultural aspects of the community (Sachs, 1993).

Technological solution
The lack of concern with the management of saline concentrate generated in the desalination process led to negative environmental impacts under the previous Program, Água Boa Program (Brasil, 2010). Thus, in addition to desalination systems, concentrate recovery units were also developed. In general, the system works as follows: saline water is collected and stored in reservoirs and sent to a system using reverse osmosis membranes. During Associativism, present in other programs, is another important tool, promoting integration, the search for common problems solving and the exchange of experiences.
Finally, the Programa Água Doce presents, in its dynamics, advances in the field of the dissemination of water treatment technologies and social technologies, especially in relation to the Management Agreements. However, the continuous involvement of the populations, the appropriation of the necessary knowledge and skills, the exchange of experiences, interinstitutional support and planning are fundamental for their objectives to be effectively permanent.
We suggest, for future work, the analysis of data with the state governments on the installation of the equipment and in relation to the history of transfer of financial resources for its operation. It is also suggested to carry out field studies in locations served by the program, identifying its particularities, positive aspects and difficulties faced, in order to evaluate and discuss strategies for the program's longevity and effectiveness.