Rio authorizes water use charge

Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state government has published a law in its official gazette that authorizes charging water utilities and companies for pulling water from rivers, the state government reported. Rio's water regulator Serla will be responsible for the charge. Money collected will be pumped back into water resource management initiatives, including environmental recovery and remediation work in the river basin area. The charge, which would be based on the quality of the water that is returned, will begin to be implemented gradually once a survey of water resource users has been completed. This should take a year.