Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 06 in Brazil: the universal access to sanitation as a possible mission

Abstract

Sanitation (which includes national public policies for drinking water, sewage services and waste management) is precarious in Brazil and therefore poses a challenge to a range of actors. Poor sanitation impacts public health, education, the environment, and daily life. Globally, it emits increasing greenhouse gases. Universalization of any major public service appears difficult, if not impossible; however, Brazil's program to universalize access to electricity proves the opposite, as will be shown in this paper. By describing the successful implementation of electricity for everyone, we show that planned public efforts, coordinated with private initiatives and local communities, have worked, and the same can be achieved for the sanitation sector. An overview of all sectors that touch on sanitation and emissions is also provided, highlighting the challenges and possibilities for infrastructure projects.

Linkages between sanitation and the sustainable development goals: A case study of Brazil

“…In so doing, it demonstrates the value of the approach in identifying opportunities for integrated action at scale. It also contributes to the body of research that has explored the way the targets interact with each other, several of which have called for context-specific case studies (see for example Dawes, 2020;Nilsson, Griggs, & Visbeck, 2016;Pham-Truffert, Metz, Fischer, Rueff, & Messerli, 2020;Pradhan, Costa, Rybski, Lucht, & Kropp, 2017;Singh et al, 2018;SuSanA, 2017;Tremblay, Fortier, Boucher, Riffon, & Villeneuve, 2020) and to research on sanitation in the context of Agenda 2030 in Brazil (e.g., de Carvalho, Barcellos, & Marques, 2018;Carvalho & Spataru, 2018;Dias, Rosa, Gomez, & D'avignon, 2018;Urbanvinicius et al, 2018).…”

“…An important obstacle to access to sanitation in Brazil, relates to governance and disagreement about responsibilities between municipalities, state and federal governments and service providers (whether state‐owned, private or semi‐private). Conflicting roles regarding infrastructure management and lack of supervision in the investments and operations have long caused tensions in the sector (Dias, Rosa, Gomez, & D'avignon, 2018; Leoneti, do Prado, & de Oliveira, 2011). Furthermore, the institutional landscape is in flux; political restructuring including the merger between the Ministry of Cities and the Ministry of National Integration to form the Ministry of Regional Development in 2019 and revisions to sanitation regulatory and decision‐making mechanisms, including the Basic Sanitation Law N° 4.162/2019 (Whately et al, 2020).…”

Access to Water and Sanitation Services in Brazilian Vulnerable Areas: The Role of Regulation and Recent Institutional Reform

“…However, even with detailed industry planning, with the current pace of WSS infrastructure construction, universalization objectives will be achieved several decades later than expected [20]. To achieve the established goals, it will be necessary to break with the current model and expand the capacity to develop projects that include the design, public procurement, construction, and management and execution of contracts to accelerate the volume and flow of investments necessary for WSS universal access [21].…”

Sustainable Development Goal 1.2

“…There are also new concepts of water resource management, including user-pays principles and participatory management. However, water coverage is currently 83.6%, and sanitation does not evolve significantly in some Brazilian cities Dias et al, 2018 ). More efforts are needed to attain the goals of universal and equitable access to clean water in Brazil.…”