Access to water and electricity and sustainable development: evidence from the Amazonian State of Parà

According to the UN's Sustainable Development Agenda, to effectively achieve sustainable development, strategies for building economic growth should also address social needs, including access to essential services. Sustainable integrated management of water resources for both primary use and energy production is crucial, especially in territories such as the Amazonian State of Pará, where a primary good like fresh water is also the main source of electricity. However, the territorial transformations occurring in Pará over installing new hydroelectric plants have jeopardised local development. This was mainly caused by the top-down approach underlying national strategic projects that have paid little attention to local needs, thus paving the way for detrimental conditions for implementing the UN's 2030 Agenda. This paper aims to analyse the relationship between a municipality's level of development and quality of life and the most relevant key determinants of sustainable development in Pará. To this end, we consider a spatial regression analysis, with particular attention devoted to the role of access to both energy and water. The presence of significant spillover effects implies that providing public services on a geographically broad basis could induce self-reinforcing benefits.