Water Security of Rural Populations in the São Paulo Macrometropolis

This chapter aims to analyze the vulnerabilities of rural areas of the SPMM with regard to water security, understanding that access to water is also mediated by important power relations. To achieve the objective, a case study of small municipalities in the SPMM with relevant rural areas is presented. We selected municipalities of the Macrometrópole Paulista, in the Vale do Paraíba region, which have a mostly rural population, this cut resulted in the selection of four municipalities, the municipal sanitation plans of each of them were analyzed. The results of this study indicate that the rural is still marginally, treated in the planning of actions that affect the water security of its populations. Even in municipalities considered to be mostly rural, rural areas are still treated as residual in the planning of basic sanitation actions that include water supply. This indicates the need to overcome outdated definitions of rural in legislation and the need to respect the autonomy of rural populations in the which refers to guaranteeing access to water through local actions, going beyond proposals that seek to insert these populations in the logic of conventional systems, that impose a modern logic on the way of relating to water.