The article focuses on the conflict between the generation of electric power and the multiple use of water in Brazil. Despite the existence of legislation that defines, in situations of scarcity, the priority use for human consumption and watering of animals, the recent water crisis reveals a series of conflicts involving the Brazilian Electric System, their companies and their management, and other uses such as irrigation, fish farming, transport and leisure activities. On the basis of the data relating to the behaviour of useful volumes of some of the main reservoirs of hydroelectric plants located in the Southeast, is considered the crisis in the availability of electricity in 2013-2014 period and its consequences. In particular, it is analyzed the conflict by the use of water in the Paraíba do Sul River occurred in August 2014.
Hydroelectric power plants; Electric power generation; Multiple use of water; Environmental conflicts
