An assessment of undergraduates’ perception on Water Resources Management in Pernambuco’s semiarid region

• Autor(a) principal: Souza Jr., Eraldo Gomes de
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Belo, Gabriel da Silva, Monteiro, Maria José de Oliveira, Ramos, Daniella, Fonseca, Francisco Ricardo Bezerra, Valença, Sandro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of Perspectives in Management
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufpe.br/revistas/index.php/jpm/article/view/245681
• topic: Water Resource Management; Water Shortage; Water Waste; Effluent Reuse; Brazilian Semiarid Region; Public Policies; Gestão de Recursos Hídricos; Gestão de Recursos Hídricos; Escassez de Água; Desperdício de Água; Reuso de Efluentes; Região Semiárida do Brasil; Políticas Públicas

The aim of this paper was to explore undergraduates’ perception on water resources management in Pernambuco’s semiarid region, located in the northeastern part of Brazil. The discussion addressed here is mainly focused on water scarcity, water waste and effluent reuse policies. A basic qualitative research was undertaken. The research corpus was composed by undergraduate students of the Academic Centre of Agreste at the Federal University of Pernambuco. The data collection was carried on by semi-structured interviews with the students, which were submitted to qualitative analysis. The findings are suggestive that: (i) the inefficient and ineffective resources management is more severe than the small amount of water that impinges such a semiarid region; (ii) undergraduates are unaware about the range of alternatives to reduce water waste; and, lastly, (iii) they understand the benefits concerning the effluent reuse processes, however, it is necessary to make people aware that the system needs financial investments and security, which will increase the social commitment to suggest sustainable solutions. These findings unveiled the need for this university to promote more educational efforts — whether trainings, or courses, or modules, or policies —, aiming to increase the levels of their awareness on such this subject, so as to decrease water waste in this region.