The National Water Agency (ANA) is legally liable for implementing the National Water Resources Management System (SINGREH), created to ensure the sustainable use of our rivers and lakes for the current and future generations.

This implies regulating the use of water according to the mechanisms established by Law No. 9433, of 1997, amongst which the following stand out: the granting of rights to the use of water resources aimed at disciplining the use of water bodies, in relation to the collection of water and discharging of effluents; inspection, to assure that the grants are licenses effectively respected and not mere notarial formalisms, and the charge for use of the water, to assure that the water bodies are used with parsimony, in addition to making possible the generation of the necessary financial resources to recover and conserve rivers and lakes.

These three mechanisms have being implemented in an articulated manner in each river basin, which requires harmony between the ANA and the water managing bodies and entities of the State Governments, as Brazilian rivers are under the domain of both the Federal Government and the States.

However, the regulation scope of the ANA reaches other management tools, also relevant to the effective performance of the SINGREH and represents the grounds for the good water management in the Country. In this regard, the Agency carries out actions of Management Support, Monitoring and Planning of Water Resources, in addition to offering Information for improvement of the performance of the water resources management agencies and of the sectors that use these resources.

Water resources plans, for example, allow diagnosing and guiding specific actions for water transfer to different users. Furthermore, it identifies constraints and opportunities for development of productive activities that use water as basic input.

ANA further stimulates the creation of river basin committees, particularly in rivers under the Federal Government’s domain, which, in turn, promote the articulation of civil society representatives, water users, and public authorities, to build an agenda based on the protection of these basins, and harmonized with the sustainable development opportunities in their areas. Likewise, it promotes a set of programs and projects destined to the spreading of practices related to the use of the water resources, cleaning-up of water basins, and the dissemination of periodic information on the condition of the Brazilian water basins, among others.

In short, the ANA reconciles implementing skills related to the National Water Resources Policy and SINGREH, in addition to exercising the role of regulatory agency and good practices inducing agent in regard to water use.

National Policy of Water Resources

All the different sectors which are water resources users are entitled to water access, being the priority, however, for human consumption and animal thirst quenching in situations of scarcity. This is what establishes the principle of multiple uses, established as one of the foundations of the National Policy on Water Resources. ANA is intended for, concerning water resources management, ensuring that the different types of water use are made in a complementary way, so that one use will not hinder the other, also considering the need for prevention of hydrological events.

The Law no. 9.433/1997, also known as the Water Law, establishes instruments for the management of water resources.
They are:

• Water resources plans 
• The framework of water bodies in classes, according to the compelling uses
• The granting of rights to the use of water resources
• The charge for use of the water
• The System of Information on Water Resources

National System of Water Resources Management (SINGREH)

Sensitive to the multiple demands on water resources and conflicts that could be generated or enhanced concerning the issue of water, the Federal Constitution of 1988 provided for the organization of the National System of Water Resources Management (SINGREH). It is a set of legal and administrative mechanisms; the System is designed to coordinate the integrated management of water resources and to implement, in a participative way, the National Policy of Water Resources - established by the Water Law (Law no. 9.433 / 1997).

They integrate SINGREH: the National Council of Water Resources (CNRH); the National Water Agency (ANA); the state councils of water resources; the watershed committees; federal, state and municipal institutions responsible for water resources management and water agencies. Next, check the organization of the National System of Water Resources Management and the state systems.

Contact us

National Water Agency (ANA)
SPO, Área 5, Quadra 3, Bloco M, Sala 116
ZIP: 70610-200
Brasilia (DF), Brazil
+55 61 21095169
asint@ana.gov.br