Decades behind, Brazil has much to learn from champion countries in basic sanitation

By Raquel Hoshino

With 35 million people without drinking water and almost 100 million (44.2% of the population) without access to a sewage system, according to data from the Trata Brasil Institute, Brazil went even further back in basic sanitation last month, with two decrees signed by President Lula changing the Sanitation Framework.

According to specialists interviewed by Gazeta do Povo, Brazil is almost 30 years behind the international experience, which causes great losses to the poorest people, with consequences such as higher infant mortality.

Meanwhile, nations such as Israel, Chile, Spain, and other OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and European Union countries, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Japan, are examples of sanitation.

In force since 2020, the Sanitation Legal Framework aims to universalize services, ensuring that, by 2033, 99% of the Brazilian population has access to drinking water and 90% to sewage collection and treatment.

According to Gesner Oliveira, former president of Sabesp (Basic Sanitation Company of the State of São Paulo) and coordinator of the Center for Infrastructure Studies and Environmental Solutions of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Brazil is already two to three decades behind the international experience.

Such a delay means higher infant mortality, higher incidence of diseases during pregnancy with possible damage to the baby, and even absenteeism in schools.

“When you compare it to Colombia, Uruguay, and Argentina, these countries end up having greater coverage than Brazil,” he says.

Check out what Brazil can learn from the best-placed countries in sanitation around the globe:

PLANNING

Sanitation is a complex infrastructure that requires a lot of capital and takes several years from planning to implementation.

“You need a whole projection of population, intervention of the environmental projects, and planning a watershed. ”

“The city needs to be planned,” says the former president of Sabesp.

“The countries with more coordination of public policy and more planning perform better as well.”

For civil engineer Álvaro Menezes, deputy treasurer of the National Board of Directors of the Brazilian Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (Abes), which makes a sanitation ranking based on the countries competing in the Soccer World Cup – a playful way of calling attention to the theme – “having planned and respecting it” is something that successful countries do and that could serve as a model for Brazil.

In the Sanitation World Cup 2022, for example, Brazil would have been eliminated during the round of 16.

And South Korea would be the great champion (winning it twice), followed by Switzerland and the United States. In fourth place would be England.

MANAGEMENT

Professional management is another secret. “You can get the resources and do a wonderful job, water supply, sewage, and solid waste treatment, but then you may not be able to operate.

Delivering [the work] to a deficient operation, over time, will deteriorate the quality of service,” explains Menezes, reinforcing that the operation has to be sustained.

Gesner Oliveira adds that professional management makes the service good and cheap and that physiologism is harmful since “non-professional management criteria hinder a lot.”

REGULATION

The sanitation market structure, explains Oliveira, is a natural monopoly.

In other words, there aren’t two, three, or four companies taking care of a city’s sanitation; therefore, a very balanced regulation is necessary.

“You can’t have a cheap tariff, good for the current consumer, but that won’t make the service reach his children and grandchildren due to lack of investment.”

Another thing that, according to Álvaro Menezes, could serve as a model for Brazil is “a better-prepared regulation that has autonomy” since our regulatory agencies “are very susceptible to political interference.”

Even more serious is their incapacity to “apply the economic, regulatory agenda to the provision of sanitation services,” he says.

COMMUNITY VISION

Álvaro Menezes adds a fourth important element, the community sense.

“In Latin America, we have a great solidarity with all our brothers, but there is no community commitment,” he says.

“Sanitation is an integrated activity.”

“You can’t imagine that you are going to solve the water supply problem without having to solve the sewage problem; that you don’t have to manage the water resources and take care of solid residues and public health,” he said.

An aggravating factor in the case of Brazil, according to Oliveira, is that public space is also undervalued.

While the farms in Rio de Janeiro, Vila Rica, São Paulo, or Salvador, for example, were clean, “the rest of the waste was thrown in the street,” which may help explain a little of the country’s delay in basic sanitation.

“This is the point: it is a question that associates the cultural posture of society, understanding that sanitation is a public health asset.”

“It is an economic asset that increases the value of your property; it is an asset for the whole city, for society; it cleans the streets, in short.”

“As far as our authorities are concerned, sanitation cannot be seen only as something that you will invest billions in, that you will have millionaire concessions for.”

“It has to be seen as an activity that will generate public health, reduce hospital admissions, and improve life,” says Menezes.

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