Beatriz Stoll Moraes

ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC POLICIES IMPLEMENTED FOR WATER MANAGEMENT IN BRAZIL

Although the planet is covered by 70% water, poor distribution of this mineral causes some areas of the globe suffer from its lack. Even Brazil being privileged with 13% of freshwater around the planet, it was necessary the creation and implementation of laws for its preservation. This article aims to present the history of Brazilian legislation related to Water Management, since its inception to the current period. According to the bibliography, it is clear that concern for water resources in Brazil was initially for navigation and agriculture. From the year 1934, the Water Code went on to encourage the industrial use of water resources, defining water as a public good, common or private use. Only with the implementation of Law 9,433 / 1997, called the National Water Resources Policy (PNRH) is what happened to give more importance to sustainable water management, with satisfactory quality standards for the various types of use. In 2000 it was created the National Water Agency (Law 9984), which has as main features the disciplinary implementation, operation, control and evaluation of management instruments created by PNRH.

CADMIUM TOXICITY IN PLANTS

Phytoremediation is a technique that uses plants for decontaminating polluted areas, as soil and water, especially from heavy metals and organic contaminants, reducing their concentration to safe levels. In addition, it contributes to improve physical, chemical and biological characteristics of these areas. Among the several forms of environmental contamination resulted from industrial and agricultural activities, water contamination with heavy metals has been the one causing more concern to researchers and government institutions involved to pollution control. Cadmium (Cd) is one of the heavy metals more studied due to its high toxicity to plants and animals. In response to the stress caused by Cd, plants can develop many tolerance mechanisms which can operate sometimes as additional mechanisms. Two possible mechanisms can be the activation of the antioxidant system and/or changes in sulfur metabolism, specially glutathione, an essential substrate to phytochelatins (PC) biosynthesis. Rivers and dams have been being contaminated with heavy metals and other contamination forms due to urban and industrial discharges. Part of heavy metal elimination and/or contamination detection can be done using aquatic plants as Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms and Salvinia auriculata (Aubl.).

Gestão ambiental no setor hoteleiro do município de São Gabriel, RS

Atualmente vem crescendo a consciencia ambiental nas empresas independente do ramo em que estas atuam. Este trabalho tem como objetivo conhecer a situacao da gestao ambiental aplicada no ramo hoteleiro do municipio de Sao Gabriel, RS. Para este estudo foi realizada uma pesquisa caracterizada como: quantitativa, descritiva, exploratoria. A aplicacao do questionario foi realizada durante os meses de setembro a novembro de 2014, contemplando 85% das empresas. Verificou-se que 67% dos administradores do ramo possuem apenas ensino medio completo, mas em sua grande maioria, com bastante experiencia na funcao que desempenha. A maior parte das empresas hoteleiras do municipio caracteriza-se como empresas de pequeno porte e de administracao familiar. Quanto aos danos ambientais, foi possivel constatar que 50% dos entrevistados acreditam que hoteis podem vir a causar algum tipo de dano ambiental; contudo, 75% das empresas afirmaram desenvolver alguma acao ambiental. Foi possivel observar que, nas empresas que nao aplicam alguma forma de gestao ambiental nao houve interesse em adotar este tipo de acoes, visto que ainda nao ha exigencias legais de obrigatoriedade. Espera-se que este trabalho contribua, junto aos empresarios e trabalhadores do ramo, com informacoes e conscientizacao de quao importante e conhecer as possiveis melhorias que podem ser realizadas atraves da aplicacao de ferramentas de gestao ambiental, evitando gastos desnecessarios e minimizando danos ao meio ambiente.