Environmental concerns, especially the ones related to the water, are each time more common in the society. In this research the goal was to understand the social representations of water in rural communities of Santa Catarina. This is one of the Program Social Technologies for Management of the Water's subprojects, sponsored for Environmental Petrobras. For this study it was applied an instrument of free evocations, with an inductive term "Water". The answers were treated by the programs Evoc and Similitude 2000, and analyzed through the theory of the central nucleus. The results indicate that the water is understood as essential to the life, related the health and it needs to be preserved. The sustainability also is remembered, therefore the water is considered essential to the survival. The use of the resource in daily activities was also considered. Elements as pollution, economy and scarcity indicate concern with what is happening to the resource and the necessities to preserve it.
Environmental psychology; free evocation; social representation
