Decentralized Water Supply Management Model: a Case Study of Public Policies for the Utilization of Rainwater

The growing population has resulted in the need for new alternatives that guarantee water supply to the population. Among the alternatives, there is the individual system for capturing and utilizing rainwater. The objective of this article was to test a municipal policy that makes it mandatory to implement the system and to attest how much it can optimize the current public water supply system through the construction of a simulation model. The simulation considered the policy implementation in one city, and the analysis of the results showed the effectiveness of the policy, which can optimize an average of 114,275.00 m³ in 2030, with demand reduction. However, it was verified that the isolated initiative is not sufficient to solve the problem of supply and demand. There is a need to expand the implementation of the policy to other cities supplied by the studied macro public system. Also, if the current management practices remain, the projection is that the current system will not guarantee supply for the coming years, mainly due to the strong impact of tourism on demand, needing new sources of supply, techniques and management strategies.