Water use in the São Francisco River basin, Brazil: an interregional input-output analysis

The planning and management of water resources aiming to a sustainable development must necessary pass through a series of studies that will reveal the interrelations and links among economic activities, and if one is considering that there is a set regions involved in the process, the direct and indirect regional interdependencies. Increasing demands of water-use for industrial, agricultural and urban sectors may became very competitive and can result in conflicts among multiple users. In the case of the São Francisco River Basin, Brazil, consisting of a wide-range five states - most of them having drought problems - the water in the basin plays an essential role and any activity in this area has to consider the effects of the water use in the intersectoral and interregional economic relations. Considering the three main states in the basin - Minas Gerais, Bahia and Pernambuco - an interregional input-output system for the economy and for the water flows was constructed by the authors. The above interregional system is then used to analyze the interregional and intersectoral dependencies among the states and the economic activities on the São Francisco river basin area and their relations with the use of water.