The Panorama of Municipal Basic Sanitation Plans in Brazil

Abstract

Planning is essential for basic sanitation development. Despite its relevance, planning application is still incipient in Brazil. The Municipal Basic Sanitation Plan (MBSP) is the main public policy instrument at the municipal level. In this context, this study aimed to develop an overview of MBSP elaboration in Brazil and to discuss gaps and potentialities in this process. The panorama was based on a database with information about all Brazilian municipalities. It was structured through active research between 2017 and 2021. Data were treated and analyzed in terms of absolute numbers, spatial cutouts (macroregions), and by the criteria of population size and Human Development Index (HDI). The results showed that plan elaboration still needs to be improved, with 65.7% of Brazilian municipalities indicating MBSP existence but only 40.7% having their documents located. The Southeast region stood out positively, while the Northeast presented the most incipient results. Regarding municipal size, it was observed that plan preparation is proportionally greater in municipalities with a population of over 100,000 inhabitants. Instead, no statistical differences were observed between the small- and medium-sized results. For the HDI, the percentage of plans’ existence and location were decreasing according to the classifications of “very high”, “high”, “medium”, and “low”. The results point to characteristics that may be involved in the institutionalization of sanitation planning, demonstrating the need to understand the demands for effective public policy development in line with the reality of the municipalities.