ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the relationship between the program and effluent charges of a basin agency. The Water Service of the Ministry of the Environment acts as the interface between the interministerial level and the basin agency level, reflecting the national orientations and the regional orientations, respectively. With respect to the setting of the levels of the effluent charges, there are only four actors, besides the basin agency itself, which really carry weight. These are: the technical ministries, the Ministry of Economics and Finance, which, at the national level, has a key role and a veto power; the industries in the basin; and the municipalities in the basin, more generally, individuals locally elected. The Ministry of Economics and Finance is the most influential of the ministerial actors and generally favors a much slower increase in the charges than the other ministries for independent and important reasons.
