Inclusion of Indigenous Communities in Water Resources Management in the Middle West of Brazil: A Proposal

The relationship between indigenous people and water is beyond the use and quality criteria usually present at techno-scientific standards. Indigenous communities commonly assign to water, some culture and spiritual values, which are normally neglected in Brazilian watershed management planning. Historically, these people have close relationship with surface water, such as rivers and lakes, an abundant resource in the country. However, due to the reduction and delimitation of their land, in conjunction with some non-traditional land use, indigenous communities are mainly supplied by groundwater. In this paper, it is presented the case of Ivinhema River watershed, in Middle West of Brazil. This watershed is one of the Parana Basins. It has the major indigenous population in the region, with frequent land-use conflicts between indigenous people and farmers. The main economic activities are agriculture and livestock. The state's water resources and Ivinhema River watershed planning are from 2010 and 2015, respectively. In both cases, indigenous population and their water knowledge were not considered. The paper examines watershed diagnosis and management proposals according to geoethics concepts and United Nations Guidelines for water resources development in order to base a future revision of the management actions.