**3.1. The right to water in the international law**

the protective logic of the environment by favoring the economic model to the detriment of

Thus, we emphasize that the concession of tariff and tax subsidies does not constitute a decision exclusively discretionary of public managers but must primarily be fully compatible with the legal system. Having said that, it is essential to find the legal protection of water in

In the context of how the case under study is inserted, it should be pointed out that the planet is immersed in a social-environmental and civilizational crisis yet not experienced by the human society. Its graver and more evident face, but not the only one, is the super warming of Earth and the climate changes. Even with the presentation of the 5th Assessment Report on Climate Change of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the publicizing of the previous report in February 2007 caused an unvulgar impact, due its utmost grievous conclusions. They indicate that the warming in the climate system is unequivocal, concerning to the climate changes and their consequences, as well as the causes of the warming, which are related to the emission of greenhouse gases. They are anthropogenic and not natural. The impacts on nature and society are already tangible [3]. The current situation has aggravated. 2016 was the warmest year since the beginning of temperature measurement in 1880, when this record had been broken for the third consecutive year [4]. The projections of the climate science are already indicating the catastrophic increase of 3°C (37.4° F) in the global average temperature [5]. In this scenario, the existence of extreme climate-environmental phenomena is recurrent: droughts, hurricanes, floods, etc. Such phenomena have become gradually more intense, until the moment when a war-vocabulary word had been lent to the ecological repertoire with the figure of the "climate refugee" or "environment refugee," which are already millions of people on the planet. In 2001, the International Red Cross published the "World Disasters Report," predicting the existence of 50 million climate refugees in 2050 [6]. However, the climate changes as well as the global warming are only the more evident face of a deeper crisis. It is directly related to the current configuration of the Capitalist mean of production-with its development model grounded on the fossil fuel paradigm and its produc-

Such social-environmental has multiple nuances, and the hydric problem is one among them. It has been manifested in the planetary order. According to the UN, water shortage affects more than 40% of the global population and must increase. It is estimated that 783 million people have no access to clean water and more than 1.7 billion people nowadays live in hydrographic basins where the use of water exceeds the reloading capacity [7]. Historically marked by inequality of access to water, the Northeastern region of Brazil, where the Pecém Port Complex is located, subsidized by tariff and tax instruments, is the part of the country where droughts are more usual. According to the Brazilian Panel for Climate Change, the decrease in rainfall during the Winter can reach 50% by the end of the century [8]. It is important to

**2. The hydric crisis in the background of the Anthropocene and of** 

**the climate changes: the Brazilian Northeastern semi-arid**

the norms that direct the priorities of water use.

142 Taxes and Taxation Trends

order to analyze the legal economic instruments.

tive-consumerist–centered vision.

The United Nations broach the Right to Water in many of its documents, some of them centerpiece here: The General Commentary n. 15, from November 2002, from the United Nations Committee for Economic and Social Rights, for instance, affirmed that "the human right to water presupposes that everybody should have sufficient, safe, acceptable and physically accessible water with reasonable prices for personal and domestic use."4 [10] And the Resolution 16, from April 2011, from the Council for Human Rights, with the adoption of the access to potable and safe water and sanitation as human rights. However, the major centerpiece is the Resolution A/RES/64/292 [11], passed on July 28, 2010, by the General Assembly of the United Nations<sup>5</sup> [10], which declares that clean and safe water and sanitation are an essential human right for the full enjoyment of rights, as well as for all the other rights. For Wolkmer and Melo, the international recognizing of the Right to Water made the international community commit—by the National states—to the protection and tutelage of such right [12]. Nevertheless, in the field conventionally called Latin-American Neo-constitutionalism, particularly in the case of multinational States, such as Bolivia and Ecuador—countries where the Andean indigenous tradition of Well Living is spread, we can find the best deal of the hydric problem (as well as for the other environmental problems), specially from the innovating concept that Nature is itself a rights holder.

The Mother-Earth Act (*"Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra")* in Bolivia, for instance, recognizes the rights of Earth as a living system. [13] In Ecuador, similar mechanisms can be found in the Constitution of the Republic itself. [14] For Marques, the recognizing of

<sup>4</sup> Gabriela Riva considers the General Commentary 15 as "the most complete document on the Right to Water, clarifying the duties decurrent of such right and defining precisely its bounders."

<sup>5</sup> In Riva's view, this resolution was "the greatest victory for the access to water movement […] passed by 144 votes in favor, 41 abstentions and no vote in con. […]"

the rights of nature stands beyond the "long history of the universalization of the subjects of right." Indeed, the author considers unsurpassable concept that it emanates from the demand of the conservation of the planetary biota to save, ultimately, the survival of the current society [15]. From that notion, water can be considered, in this eco-centered or bio-centered background, as a rights holder subject. Ana Alice de Carli defends this concept from the fundamental necessity of "awaking the ecological conscience and the duty of taking care of the water of all people." [16]. In the same direction, there have been taken important decisions in March 2017, in India, where the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers had obtained the status of "an alive human entity," and in New Zealand, where the Whanganui River obtained the same rights of a human being [17]. Following, it will be shown that the Brazilian law takes the management of hydric resources and the right to access to water according to the main documents of International Law, which assure the Right to Water, embodying such right into the National Law. 6

of the Rights to a Balanced Environment and to Health, since the access to the "precious liquid," even in quantity or decent quality, is a *conditio sine qua non* for a healthy quality of life.

The Right to Water and Hydric Injustice: A Study on the (Un)Constitutionality of Tax Benefits…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75403

145

The individual access to water deserves to be understood as a universal human right, which means that any person, in any part of the planet, can collect, use or appropriate water to the specific intend of survival, in other words, to not die because of lack of water, and at the same time, to enjoy the Right to Life and to Ecological Balance [22]. D'Isep, after adducing that the Right to Water is a precursor of all the other rights, clarifies a series of definitive conclusions in which those rights are present and states that the Right to Water is manifest as a "universal principle of the fundamental right to water-life" [22]. The Right to Water and Right to Sanitation are also encountered in the reflections of Sarlet and Fernsterseifer, when the authors state that it is in the theoretical framework of the State of Environmental Law that one can find what he/she denominates as the fundamental socio-environmental rights. This concept is related to the idea of indivisibility and interdependence of the fundamental human rights, in which the authors gather the rights, which are, at the same time, social and

*The environmental protection […] is directly related to the guarantee of the social rights, since the enjoyment of these ones is dependent of favorable environmental conditions. As in the case, for instance, of the access to potable water (through sanitation, which is also a fundamental social right of the minimal necessary to existence.) […] The effectiveness of the supply service of water and sanitary sewage integrates, directly or indirectly, the normative field of diverse fundamental rights (but, especially, the social rights), as the Right to Health, the Right to Decent Dwelling, the Right to Environment and the "forthcoming" Right to Water (essential to human dignity) as well as, in extreme cases, also the Right* 

What the authors denominate "forthcoming" right-despite the claim of its insertion in the current positive normative framework of the Constitution of the Republic, as required by Machado [22]-is already present in some recent acts, such as the *Estatuto da Cidade* (the Basic Law of the City, Act 10.257/ 2001), the *Lei de Saneamento Básico* (Sanitation Act, Act 11.445/2007), and specially, the Act that instituted the National Policy for Hydric Resources

Whereas in the first rule-*the Estatuto da Cidade*-the right to the environmental sanitation integrates the first list of guarantees of the so-called right to sustainable cities (one of the guidelines of urban policy), presupposed in its Article 2, Incise 1; the Act 11.445/ 2007 in its Article 3, Incise 1, defines sanitation as a collection of services, infrastructure and logistic installations of "potable water supply, sanitary sewage, urban cleanness and management of solid resources and drainage and management of urban rain water." (Act 11.445/2007, Article 3, Incise I.) The act also established as one of its fundamental principles the universalization of access (the progressive enlargement of access of sanitation for all occupied residences), in the

Nowadays, the Proposes of Amendment to the Constitution n. 39/ 2007 and 213/ 2012 are submitted to the Congress

words of its Article 2, Incise 1, combined with Article 2, Item 3.

examination. They propose to transform the Right to Water in a Constitutional Right.

In his own words:

environmental. In their own words:

*to Life* [22]*.*

(Act 9.443/1997).7

7

#### **3.2. The right to water in the Brazilian law**

The conception that the political formula for the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 is the State of Environmental Law (or, in a more detailed definition, a socio-environmental democratic state under the rule of law), results of a dialectical synthesis "post-positivist," which surpasses the antinomy jusnaturalism x positivism [18], according to Belchior. It acknowledges the status of self-applicable juridical rule, and not only as a promise of rights. Marlmestein refers to what he defines as the "triumph of constitutionalism, with the renovation of the thinking and the judges in charge of the Supremo Tribunal Federal (also known as STF) the Brazilian supreme court. In his analysis of court works, he observes that"[…] nowadays, it is matter of no discussion in the jurisprudence of the STF, the understanding that it is possible to extract from the constitutional principles direct commands on the lawmakers [19], by force of the maximal effectiveness of the constitution." Among those fundamental rights-of socio-environmental nature, strictly according to the already mentioned meaning by Sarlet and Fenterseifer [20]-there are the Right to an Ecologically Balanced Environment, to Health and to Water. The Brazilian Constitution directly recognizes the first and the second ones in its own text. Even though expressed in different articles of the Constitution, there is no possibility to interpret them independently from the Rights to Health, presupposed in the Article 196, as well as the Right to Balanced Environment, in the Article 225.

The relation between the quality of the environment, which is supposed to be ecologically balanced, and the healthy quality of life, presupposed in the Article 225, can be found in the synthesis definition of the World Health Organization (WHO) that states health as "a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity" [21]. Thus, there is no possible way to think a dignified life in a non-balanced, nonhealthy and non-sustainable environment—in its natural, artificial or cultural dimensions. Machado stands by the idea of water as a fundamental human right, as a direct consequence

<sup>6</sup> The expressed rights ant guarantees in the Constitution do not exclude other ones, decurrent of the its regime and principles, or in the international deals that the Federative Republic of Brazil participates. (The Article 5, Paragraph 2 of the Brazilian Federal Constitution.)

of the Rights to a Balanced Environment and to Health, since the access to the "precious liquid," even in quantity or decent quality, is a *conditio sine qua non* for a healthy quality of life. In his own words:

the rights of nature stands beyond the "long history of the universalization of the subjects of right." Indeed, the author considers unsurpassable concept that it emanates from the demand of the conservation of the planetary biota to save, ultimately, the survival of the current society [15]. From that notion, water can be considered, in this eco-centered or bio-centered background, as a rights holder subject. Ana Alice de Carli defends this concept from the fundamental necessity of "awaking the ecological conscience and the duty of taking care of the water of all people." [16]. In the same direction, there have been taken important decisions in March 2017, in India, where the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers had obtained the status of "an alive human entity," and in New Zealand, where the Whanganui River obtained the same rights of a human being [17]. Following, it will be shown that the Brazilian law takes the management of hydric resources and the right to access to water according to the main documents of International Law, which assure the Right to Water,

6

The conception that the political formula for the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 is the State of Environmental Law (or, in a more detailed definition, a socio-environmental democratic state under the rule of law), results of a dialectical synthesis "post-positivist," which surpasses the antinomy jusnaturalism x positivism [18], according to Belchior. It acknowledges the status of self-applicable juridical rule, and not only as a promise of rights. Marlmestein refers to what he defines as the "triumph of constitutionalism, with the renovation of the thinking and the judges in charge of the Supremo Tribunal Federal (also known as STF) the Brazilian supreme court. In his analysis of court works, he observes that"[…] nowadays, it is matter of no discussion in the jurisprudence of the STF, the understanding that it is possible to extract from the constitutional principles direct commands on the lawmakers [19], by force of the maximal effectiveness of the constitution." Among those fundamental rights-of socio-environmental nature, strictly according to the already mentioned meaning by Sarlet and Fenterseifer [20]-there are the Right to an Ecologically Balanced Environment, to Health and to Water. The Brazilian Constitution directly recognizes the first and the second ones in its own text. Even though expressed in different articles of the Constitution, there is no possibility to interpret them independently from the Rights to Health, presupposed in the Article 196, as well as the Right to Balanced Environment, in

The relation between the quality of the environment, which is supposed to be ecologically balanced, and the healthy quality of life, presupposed in the Article 225, can be found in the synthesis definition of the World Health Organization (WHO) that states health as "a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity" [21]. Thus, there is no possible way to think a dignified life in a non-balanced, nonhealthy and non-sustainable environment—in its natural, artificial or cultural dimensions. Machado stands by the idea of water as a fundamental human right, as a direct consequence

The expressed rights ant guarantees in the Constitution do not exclude other ones, decurrent of the its regime and principles, or in the international deals that the Federative Republic of Brazil participates. (The Article 5, Paragraph 2 of

embodying such right into the National Law.

**3.2. The right to water in the Brazilian law**

the Article 225.

144 Taxes and Taxation Trends

the Brazilian Federal Constitution.)

6

The individual access to water deserves to be understood as a universal human right, which means that any person, in any part of the planet, can collect, use or appropriate water to the specific intend of survival, in other words, to not die because of lack of water, and at the same time, to enjoy the Right to Life and to Ecological Balance [22]. D'Isep, after adducing that the Right to Water is a precursor of all the other rights, clarifies a series of definitive conclusions in which those rights are present and states that the Right to Water is manifest as a "universal principle of the fundamental right to water-life" [22]. The Right to Water and Right to Sanitation are also encountered in the reflections of Sarlet and Fernsterseifer, when the authors state that it is in the theoretical framework of the State of Environmental Law that one can find what he/she denominates as the fundamental socio-environmental rights. This concept is related to the idea of indivisibility and interdependence of the fundamental human rights, in which the authors gather the rights, which are, at the same time, social and environmental. In their own words:

*The environmental protection […] is directly related to the guarantee of the social rights, since the enjoyment of these ones is dependent of favorable environmental conditions. As in the case, for instance, of the access to potable water (through sanitation, which is also a fundamental social right of the minimal necessary to existence.) […] The effectiveness of the supply service of water and sanitary sewage integrates, directly or indirectly, the normative field of diverse fundamental rights (but, especially, the social rights), as the Right to Health, the Right to Decent Dwelling, the Right to Environment and the "forthcoming" Right to Water (essential to human dignity) as well as, in extreme cases, also the Right to Life* [22]*.*

What the authors denominate "forthcoming" right-despite the claim of its insertion in the current positive normative framework of the Constitution of the Republic, as required by Machado [22]-is already present in some recent acts, such as the *Estatuto da Cidade* (the Basic Law of the City, Act 10.257/ 2001), the *Lei de Saneamento Básico* (Sanitation Act, Act 11.445/2007), and specially, the Act that instituted the National Policy for Hydric Resources (Act 9.443/1997).7

Whereas in the first rule-*the Estatuto da Cidade*-the right to the environmental sanitation integrates the first list of guarantees of the so-called right to sustainable cities (one of the guidelines of urban policy), presupposed in its Article 2, Incise 1; the Act 11.445/ 2007 in its Article 3, Incise 1, defines sanitation as a collection of services, infrastructure and logistic installations of "potable water supply, sanitary sewage, urban cleanness and management of solid resources and drainage and management of urban rain water." (Act 11.445/2007, Article 3, Incise I.) The act also established as one of its fundamental principles the universalization of access (the progressive enlargement of access of sanitation for all occupied residences), in the words of its Article 2, Incise 1, combined with Article 2, Item 3.

<sup>7</sup> Nowadays, the Proposes of Amendment to the Constitution n. 39/ 2007 and 213/ 2012 are submitted to the Congress examination. They propose to transform the Right to Water in a Constitutional Right.

Finally, the Act that instituted the National Policy for Hydric Resources, in this search for grounding of the fundamental socio-environmental right to water, should not be forgotten. It is the Act 9433/1997, especially concerned with the use of raw water, since the issues of potable water are part of the already mentioned policy of sanitation.

from an economic and social view, allocate the major amount of environmental damage in lower income populations, groups racially discriminated, traditional ethnic peoples, workers' neighborhoods, the marginalized and vulnerable populations [23]. Martinez Alier, on the other hand, works with this concept-environmental justice-as one of the chains of the ecologic movement, synonym of *ecology of the poor,* or *popular ecology.* For that author, the Ethics of this movement is decurrent of the demand for social justice. According to him, "disgracefully, economic growth implies in bigger impacts on the environment, drawing one's attention to the geographical displacement of the sources of resources and the areas for waste discard" [24]. When that fair distribution of social and environmental goods is alluded, it must include water among them, a good of public domain (Article 1, Incise 1, Ac 9.433/1997) and an essential factor to healthy quality of life, preconized by the Article 225 of the Brazilian Constitution. The unfair distribution, the denial or the obstruction of that common good, as already mentioned, as well as the favorability to economic groups instead of human populations, is considered,

The Right to Water and Hydric Injustice: A Study on the (Un)Constitutionality of Tax Benefits…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75403

147

Working the concept of hydric injustice, as taught by Porto-Gonçalves, means thinking of water as a territory, or in other words, "[…] as the inscription of society in nature, with all the contradictions implied in the process of appropriation of nature by man and women through their social relations of power" [25]. It is interesting in this research to observe how the economic legal instruments of taxation and tariff are related to the promotion or reduction of this water injustice from the empirical case study. Those relations of power are exactly what produce environmental injustice, through the private appropriation of hydric resources, even when legalized by the instrument of grant of the right to use. The case of the "thirsty industries," in other words, hydro-intensive, located in the Industrial and Port Complex of Pecém (CIPP, in Portuguese) in the Municipality of São Gonçalo do Amarante, in the State of Ceará

**4. The tax benefits for the hydro-intensive industries of the Complex** 

The economic policy of the Estate of Ceará is inserted in the context of neo-developmentism [26], associated with neo-extractivism [27]. Both share the idea of progress with unlimited growth, a perspective that justifies the appropriation of environmental goods and the conception that the state and the market consist of complementary fields, to provide economic

In such context, it is important to highlight the fundamental role the state plays in the contribution of these large-scaled enterprises. The case of CIPP is not different from others, for which the state works as a factor of stimulation and facilitation for their installation. The specific literature indicates the recurrence of environmental conflicts involving a productive hydro-extensive matrix subsidize by the state. In Ceará, the following cases are remarkable: the agribusiness in the Chapada do Apodi [28], the project of mining of uranium and phosphates in Santa Quitéria [29, 30] and the shrimp production in traditional Quilombos'

evidently, as hydric injustice.

is a relevant example of the exposed scenario.

growth, powered by large-scaled enterprises.

lands [31].

**of Pecém: a debate on its (un)constitutionality**

It is important to say that the principles of the National Policy of Hydric Resources (article 1 of the law) bring fundamental (some contradictory) definitions for the treatment of the right to water, namely, the character of water as a "public property" (which is consonant with the concept of the environment as "good of common use of the people", inscribed in article 225 of our Constitution) and endowed with "economic value" - which could, in theory, contain a term contradiction. 8

The act also deals with a vision of "multiple uses" in the management of hydric resources, which alludes a perspective of conflict of the terms in a quarrel of a limited resource, as the act itself acknowledges and tends to deepen in times of climate change. It also assures that, in the situation of scarcity (and only in such cases, which is the other contradiction with the guarantee of the Right to Water), the prior use of water will be destined for human consumption and animal watering.

Water shortage, treated as a "calamity," is one of the circumstances that can lead to the suppression, partial or total, definitively or with no determined deadline, of the grants of the right to the use of hydric resources, besides other cases, such as the prevention or reversal of severe environmental degradation or the necessity to respond to prior uses, of collective interest, for those there are no other alternative source (Article 15, PNRH). According to D'Isep, the instrument of granting is an answer to the rarity of such resource, since "it legitimates the intervention of the State into the management of the access to water, therefore, in the regimentation of its use, in order to assure the social satisfaction, which is the healthy and dignified life" [22]. The grants of the rights of hydric resources consist in the instrument created to guarantee the "quantitative and qualitative control of the uses of water and the effective activation of the rights to access to water" (Article 11, PNRH) in order to guarantee, at least instance, the prime objective of the National Policy of Hydric Resources, which is, "assuring to this generation and to the next to come, the necessary availability of water, within the adequate patterns of quality to its respective uses."

And it is precisely this instrument created to guarantee the Right to Water for present and future generations that can, on the other hand, be responsible for situations of what can be called today water injustice, a concept that stems from environmental justice conception developed by Acselrad et al. [23], for whom this is a set of principles and practices aimed at equity, access to information and, fundamentally, democratic and participatory processes of defining not only the uses of environmental resources and the destination of tailings, but mainly, of public policies, especially those of socioeconomic development. In a counterpoint, the authors define environmental injustice as the mechanism through which unequal societies,

<sup>8</sup> The criticism against the vision of water as a worth is well grounded by Gabriela Riva, for who "the exclusive use of the economic approach did not consider the ecological bounders imposed by the water cycle and also the economic limits imposed by poverty and inequality, having done no contribution to the conservation of water and the democratization of the access to it. (Refer to the text, p. 39.)

from an economic and social view, allocate the major amount of environmental damage in lower income populations, groups racially discriminated, traditional ethnic peoples, workers' neighborhoods, the marginalized and vulnerable populations [23]. Martinez Alier, on the other hand, works with this concept-environmental justice-as one of the chains of the ecologic movement, synonym of *ecology of the poor,* or *popular ecology.* For that author, the Ethics of this movement is decurrent of the demand for social justice. According to him, "disgracefully, economic growth implies in bigger impacts on the environment, drawing one's attention to the geographical displacement of the sources of resources and the areas for waste discard" [24]. When that fair distribution of social and environmental goods is alluded, it must include water among them, a good of public domain (Article 1, Incise 1, Ac 9.433/1997) and an essential factor to healthy quality of life, preconized by the Article 225 of the Brazilian Constitution. The unfair distribution, the denial or the obstruction of that common good, as already mentioned, as well as the favorability to economic groups instead of human populations, is considered, evidently, as hydric injustice.

Finally, the Act that instituted the National Policy for Hydric Resources, in this search for grounding of the fundamental socio-environmental right to water, should not be forgotten. It is the Act 9433/1997, especially concerned with the use of raw water, since the issues of

It is important to say that the principles of the National Policy of Hydric Resources (article 1 of the law) bring fundamental (some contradictory) definitions for the treatment of the right to water, namely, the character of water as a "public property" (which is consonant with the concept of the environment as "good of common use of the people", inscribed in article 225 of our Constitution) and endowed with "economic value" - which could, in theory, contain a

The act also deals with a vision of "multiple uses" in the management of hydric resources, which alludes a perspective of conflict of the terms in a quarrel of a limited resource, as the act itself acknowledges and tends to deepen in times of climate change. It also assures that, in the situation of scarcity (and only in such cases, which is the other contradiction with the guarantee of the Right to Water), the prior use of water will be destined for human consump-

Water shortage, treated as a "calamity," is one of the circumstances that can lead to the suppression, partial or total, definitively or with no determined deadline, of the grants of the right to the use of hydric resources, besides other cases, such as the prevention or reversal of severe environmental degradation or the necessity to respond to prior uses, of collective interest, for those there are no other alternative source (Article 15, PNRH). According to D'Isep, the instrument of granting is an answer to the rarity of such resource, since "it legitimates the intervention of the State into the management of the access to water, therefore, in the regimentation of its use, in order to assure the social satisfaction, which is the healthy and dignified life" [22]. The grants of the rights of hydric resources consist in the instrument created to guarantee the "quantitative and qualitative control of the uses of water and the effective activation of the rights to access to water" (Article 11, PNRH) in order to guarantee, at least instance, the prime objective of the National Policy of Hydric Resources, which is, "assuring to this generation and to the next to come, the necessary availability of water, within the adequate patterns of

And it is precisely this instrument created to guarantee the Right to Water for present and future generations that can, on the other hand, be responsible for situations of what can be called today water injustice, a concept that stems from environmental justice conception developed by Acselrad et al. [23], for whom this is a set of principles and practices aimed at equity, access to information and, fundamentally, democratic and participatory processes of defining not only the uses of environmental resources and the destination of tailings, but mainly, of public policies, especially those of socioeconomic development. In a counterpoint, the authors define environmental injustice as the mechanism through which unequal societies,

The criticism against the vision of water as a worth is well grounded by Gabriela Riva, for who "the exclusive use of the economic approach did not consider the ecological bounders imposed by the water cycle and also the economic limits imposed by poverty and inequality, having done no contribution to the conservation of water and the democratization

potable water are part of the already mentioned policy of sanitation.

term contradiction.

146 Taxes and Taxation Trends

tion and animal watering.

quality to its respective uses."

of the access to it. (Refer to the text, p. 39.)

8

8

Working the concept of hydric injustice, as taught by Porto-Gonçalves, means thinking of water as a territory, or in other words, "[…] as the inscription of society in nature, with all the contradictions implied in the process of appropriation of nature by man and women through their social relations of power" [25]. It is interesting in this research to observe how the economic legal instruments of taxation and tariff are related to the promotion or reduction of this water injustice from the empirical case study. Those relations of power are exactly what produce environmental injustice, through the private appropriation of hydric resources, even when legalized by the instrument of grant of the right to use. The case of the "thirsty industries," in other words, hydro-intensive, located in the Industrial and Port Complex of Pecém (CIPP, in Portuguese) in the Municipality of São Gonçalo do Amarante, in the State of Ceará is a relevant example of the exposed scenario.
