The design of effective mechanisms for water management is a key component of reducing pollution externalities across jurisdictional boundaries. Water rights and management are an important issue at the local, national and international levels. Cross border pollution spillovers have created political difficulties between user groups from the Jordan River basin to the Colorado River. Enhanced water management improves the quality of life of local populations and reduces cross-border conflicts. Water basin committees are commonly advocated by environmentalists as a method of improving the management of water resources. This doctoral dissertation project takes advantage of the unique structure of decentralized water management in Brazil to estimate the effects of water basin committees and examine political mechanisms which enhance or reduce their effectiveness. This paper uses over 40,000 water quality observations from 2000 water quality monitoring stations across Brazil to estimate the effect that the 112 water basin committees which were created between 1990 and 2007 have had on the management of water quality in Brazil?s rivers.
Broader Impacts: Development of new management tools can improve cross-jurisdictional cooperation over resources and improve the quality of life of the local populations who depend on the resources. An additional impact of this project will be to make available a large database which can be used to study additional questions on water quality, water use, cross-jurisdictional bargaining, and the health effects of water pollution in a developing country setting.
