BraziIian Cities will Only Have 100 Percent Sanitation by 2060

By Xiu Ying, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A sector suffering from a shortfall in investment is basic sanitation. At the current rate, Brazilian citizens are expected to wait at least another 40 years to obtain clean water and sewage collection.

In the community of Vietnã, in the South Zone of São Paulo, the sewage flows into an open-air stream. Living like this is nobody’s choice. “You end up having health issues, diseases, it attracts animals, mice, mosquitoes, and flooding which happens a lot,” says Jones Rodrigues, community leader.

With regard to basic sanitation, Brazil has a backlog of decades. But the rate of investment is not in accordance with this need. As it is, many families will only obtain clean water and sewage collection in future generations.

Not until the 2060s

This is shown in a projection made by CNI – the National Confederation of Industry – although the National Plan for Basic Sanitation sets the deadline for 2033.

To achieve this goal in 2033, investment in Brazil would need to reach R$21 (US$5.25) billion per year, says the CNI. But it doesn’t even come close. And it has been decreasing steadily since 2014.

The Northern region of the country has the lowest level of clean water and sewage collection and it is the one investing the least in basic sanitation.

The National Congress is considering whether to make the law an interim measure aimed at increasing the participation of the private sector in basic sanitation. The CNI says that such a measure would provide more legal security and more companies would invest.

“Today, the reality is that only 9 percent of the population is supplied by the private sector,” says Mônica Messenberg, director of Institutional Relations at CNI.

The city of Limeira was the first in the country to award basic sanitation to a private company. Today, nearly 100 percent of the population has clean water and sewage.

The city of Franca is considered the best in Brazil in terms of basic sanitation. Sabesp, a public-private company, manages the business there.

“We are talking about over R$400 (US$100) billion that Brazil needs for everyone to have tap water, sewage collected and treated. The public sector alone cannot, the private sector alone cannot. We need everyone so that Brazilians may have dignity and, at the very least, water running through the tap,” says Édison Carlos, president of the Trata Brasil Institute.