Water discourses management: Water supply crisis communication in the RMSP (2014-2015)

Gestión de los discursos del água: Comunicación de la crisis del abastecimiento de água en la RMSP (2014-2015)

Abstract

The current article is an investigation on how the water supply crisis taking place in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (RMSP) was addressed during the 2014-2015 biennium. Aspects of information monopoly and scientific expertise mobilization by São Paulo State’s Sanitation Company and by São Paulo State’s Government were herein addressed, as well as the instrumentation of these aspects through mass communication focused on this event. In total, 63 documents published by these actors were herein analyzed based on the Social Studies of Science and Technology and on the Framing theory. Results pointed towards a discursive plan aimed at shaping the interpretation of the water supply crisis by relativizing public agents’ condition and by reinvigorating a specific water supply network-expansion model. The contribution of this investigation lies on the identification of public discourse as an instrument of action over urban sanitation infrastructures.

Keywords:
Water Crisis; Metropolitan Region of São Paulo; Risk communication; Sabesp; Discourse analysis