The long way to universal coverage

Shortage of resources delays the programs of public investments for basic sanitation in Brazil, where 35 million inhabitants do not have access to treated water

Brazil has 5570 municipalities and approximately205.5 million inhabitants. From this total, more than 35 million of Brazilians do not have access to treated water supply. Approximately 50 percent of the population do not have sewage collection. And to worsen the situation, only 40 percent of country’s sewage are treated.This is the sad scenario of the existing deficit in Brazilian basic sanitation, according to the last data issued by the Ministry of Cities in the National System of Sanitation Information (SNIS), base year 2014.

The importance of this subject is being more and more important in the agenda ofour cities due to the increase in the notices referred to diseases transmitted by theAedesAegypti mosquito, such as dengue, zikaand chikungunya,whose proliferation was made easier by the lack of basic sanitation.In addition to these diseases, recent studies point to an increase in the number of hospitalizations caused by intestinal infections due to the consumption of non-treated water.

“To allow the country to get its targets of universal coverage of sanitation, yearly investments of about R$ 15.63 billion will be needed.” This information is coming from Paulo Roberto de Oliveira, president of the Brazilian Association of Private Concessionaries of Water and Sewage Public Services (Abcon).

The figures of the Ministry of Cities—disclosed in the 20th edition of the Diagnosis of Water and Sewage Services from the National Secretary of Environmental Sanitation—show that basic sanitation investments effectively carried out in the whole country reached R$ 12.2 billion. This corresponds to an increase of 16.7 percent when compared to the former year.

Abconhas just issued the yearbook Overview of Private Participation in Sanitation, using updated data of private concessionaries which are working in the whole country.The document was issued in the moment that the interim government of Michel Temerpoints that sanitation will be a national priority, highlighting the importance and necessity of participation of private initiative as fundamental for project financing.

The important is that—although there is too much to be done in this scenario of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the industry of sanitation—private share is growing every year, being consolidated as one of the main alternatives to improve the quality of services and to increase investments.

According to the Overview of Private Participation in Sanitation, approximately 70 percent of sanitation services in the 5114 Brazilian municipalities informed by the SNIS (National System of Sanitation Information) are operated by local public renders, 25 percent by local and micro-regional public renders and just 5 percent are developed and operated by private companies or PPPs.These figures are quite below those of other countries. In France, for example, private companies carry out 75 percent of services in the area. In Germany, this rate is of 40 percent and in the United States, approximately 73 million persons are served by private companies, corresponding to approximately 23 percent of the current population of the country.

Even being small, the private participation in the Brazilian industry of sanitation was responsible by about 20 percent of the entire investment in the area during 2014. This investment was divided in 73 percent for small cities (population up to 50,000 inhabitants) and 27 percentfor cities having more than 500,000 inhabitants.