Public policies and environmental governance: guidelines for a comprehensive program of control, decontamination and sanitation of río Negro river basins (Argentine)

Abstract

Water is a natural, strategic and scarce good, which we have value, preserve and use for our integral and environmentally sustainable development. Its contamination occurs as a result of any chemical, physical or biological change in water quality that has a harmful effect on any living being that consumes it. This work describes the conceptual and technical aspects as well as the most relevant causes and consequences of the phenomenon of water basin pollution in the Province of Río Negro and its possible sanitation strategies within the framework of the generation of public policies for environmental governance. The methodology includes the collection of primary and secondary information, which allows us to account for the importance of the problem for the entire population and the need to include in the government agenda, concrete actions to address the issue under a public-private co-management model. Finally, possible initiatives for the prevention and sanitation of contaminated river basins are presented on an inclusive base of all the actors involved that, in a medium and long term horizon, contribute to the best environmental governance of the territory covered by the Río Negro´s river basins.