Water supply and sanitation in Brazil
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Water supply and sanitation in Brazil has proved to be a resilient and resourceful sector, despite tremendous challenges and persistent inequalities in the sector. A lot has been achieved during the past decades, including a sustained improvement in efficiency and improved access. Access to improved water supply increased from 83% in 1990 to 90% in 2004, and access to improved sanitation increased from 71% to 75%.[1] Nevertheless, more needs to be done in order to reduce glaring inequalities and to attain the water supply and sanitation Millenium Development Goals, which Brazil would only achieve in 2054 if the current level of investment was maintained.
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[edit] Access
| Urban (84% of the population) | Rural (16% of the population) | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | Broad definition | 96% | 57% | 90% |
| House connections | 91% | 17% | 79% | |
| Sanitation | Broad definition | 83% | 37% | 75% |
| Sewerage | 53% | 5% | 45% |
Source: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (2004)
Access to improved water supply in Brazil stood at 90% and access to improved sanitation at 75% in 2004. [2] Coverage is significantly higher in urban areas, where 84% of Brazil’s population live. Urban coverage is 96% for water and 83% for improved sanitation, including 53% access to sewerage, the remainder being accounted for by on-site sanitation. Coverage in rural areas, where 16% of Brazil’s population lives, is much lower. It stands at 57% for improved water supply and only 37% for improved sanitation. [3] Geographically coverage is lowest in the country’s poorest regions: particularly in predominantly rural North, Northeast, and Center-West.
[edit] Water use
Average water use in Brazil for users served by utilities fell from 217 to 143 liter/capita/day over the past years (-34%). Water use in Brazil thus is lower than the excessively high water use found in many other Latin American countries and is now much closer to levels in Central Europe. Increased metering and a higher share of low-income users with low per capita water use probably played a role in the reduced average water use.
[edit] Reaching the poor
Reaching poor urban neighborhoods remains a challenge. This frequently requires non-conventional approaches. While Brazil has pioneered the use of low cost appropriate technology (such as condominial sewers) and active community participation it still faces the challenge of the many informal peri-urban settlements, called favelas, often situated on steep slopes or in flood plains. An example of how the government addresses these issues is the World Bank-supported Low Income Sanitation Technical Assistance Project PROSANEAR [4]
[edit] Pollution
Brazil’s major and medium size metropolitan areas face increasing problems of water pollution. Coastal cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Recife suffer effects of upstream residential and industrial sewage contaminating feeder rivers, lakes, and the ocean. In 2000, only 35% of collected wastewater received any treatment.
[edit] Responsibility for water supply and sanitation
[edit] Service provision
According to the Brazilian constitution the provision of water and sanitation services is the responsibility of the country’s 5,560 municipalities (see List of major cities in Brazil). However, state water and sewerage companies in each of Brazil’s 26 states (see States of Brazil) are in charge of water services in about 4,000 municipalities and of sewer services in about 1,000 municipalities. The state companies were created beginning in 1971 as part of the National Water and Sanitation PLANASA, replacing the earlier model of pure municipal service provision. While some state companies operate under concession contracts with municipalities, there are also some cases where municipalities have challenged the legality of service provision by state companies.
Municipal service providers are associated in the National Association of Municipal Water and Sanitation Service Providers ASSEMAE.[5] State water and sanitation companies have formed the Association of State Companies for Water Supply and Basic Sanitation AESBE [6]
All state service providers and most municipal service providers in Brazil are public. However, since 1996 65 municipalities in 10 states (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Paraná, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso and Pará among others) that serve 7 million customers signed concession contracts with private service providers either to provide only water services, only sewer services or both.[7] In 1996 private service providers have formed the Brazilian Association of Private Water and Sanitation Concessionnaire.[8] A multi-stakheholder assessment of the success of these concessions is currently underway.
Some public service providers, both at the state and the municipal level, perform very well, while other perform poorly. Likewise, some private concessions are quite successful, while others have not lived up to expectations and their obligations.
[edit] Policy and regulation
At the national level the Ministry of Cities coordinates sector policies, which are implemented by various Ministries. For example, the Ministry of Health has certain attributions related to sanitation, and the Ministries of Regional Development and of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform have attributions in rural areas. Water resources management is the responsibility of the national water agency ANA.[9]
Regulation of service provision is a responsibility of the municipalities. Nevertheless, 14 Brazilian states have established regulatory agencies for public services that cover, among other sectors, water supply and sanitation. Given that the legal mandate for regulation rests with the municipalities, however, the role of these regulatory agencies in water and sanitation is minimal.
The National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy, approved by the Congress of Cities, has identified six steps to improve service coverage and efficiency by ncouraging a more competitive and better regulated environment: (1) the institutional separation of service providers and service regulators: (2) promotion of different decentralized alternatives for service provision; (3) promotion of social participation in service regulation and control; (4) use of low-cost technologies; (5) development of financially sustainable pricing schemes which include subsidies for low-income families where required to assure universal access to basic services; and (6) greater cooperation between federal and local authorities and civil society.
[edit] Recent developments
In January 2007 President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a new federal water and sanitation law (Lei 11.445/07 para o saneamento básico) that outlines federal policies in the sector. The law aims at increasing investments to provide universal access to water and sanitation, while taking into account local specificities and using appropriate technologies that are in line with users' ability to pay. It also aims at increasing transparency and "social control". The law is a compromise between diverging interests of a broad array of stakeholders. It thus leaves some important issues undefined. One of these issues is the responsibility for service provision in large metropolitan areas, where some municipalities have challenged the constitutionality of service provision by state companies. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on two such cases. Nevertheless, the law fills a void by providing a legal basis for the role of the federal government in water and sanitation that had remained undefined during the previous 20 years. [10]
In the same month, the President announced a new Program for the Acceleration of Growth (PAC) that includes major investments in highways, airports, ports, energy, as well as providing housing, water and sewage that would benefit poor Brazilians. The program calls for a total of 504 billion real (235 billion U.S. dollars) through 2010, of which about 205 billion U.S. dollars would be provided by state-owned companies and the private sector, while the rest would come from the federal government.[11]
[edit] Efficiency
One of the indicators of the efficiency of service provision is the level of non-revenue water (NRW). NRW in Brazil varies between 21% and a staggering 81%, reflecting huge differences in efficiency between service providers.[12] The average level of NRW in Brazil in 2005 was 39%.
Labor productivity has increased from 4.4 to 3.7 empployees/1000 water connections.
[edit] Tariffs
Water and sanitation tariffs in many Brazilian cities are relatively high compared to the Latin American average. According to a 2005 study by the Latin American association of water and sanitation regulators ADERASA the typical monthly residential water bill for a consumption of 20 cubic meters per month was equivalent to US$17 in Sau Paulo, US$15 in Espíritu Santo and US$ 10 in Pernambuco, compared to an average of US$11 among the 21 Latin American cities covered. [13] Nevertheless, revenues are insufficient to allow utilities to undertake all necessary investments to increase coverage and expand wastewater treatment.
[edit] Investment
In 2005 total investment in water and sanitation by service providers participating in the national water and sanitation information system SNIS stood at 3.55 billion Brazilian Reals, including 1.53bn for water and 1.35bn for sanitation and 0.67bn for other investments.[14]
The recently announced Program for the Acceleration of Economic Growth is expected to contribute to further raise investment levels in water and sanitation.
It has been estimated that investments in water and sanitation infrastructure in the order of R$ 9.6 billion (US$ 4.5bn or $24 per capita or 0.7% of GDP) per year, or almost three times the level of 2005, would be needed to achieve universal access.
[edit] Financing
By far the major source of funding in 2004 was self-financing by the utilities, accounting for 1.82bn Reals or 51% of all financing. [15] This is a remarkably high share by Latin American standards. However, it is less a reflection of financial strenth of the utilities, but rather a symptom of an overall decline in investment.
The federally owned Caixa Economica Federal plays an important role in debt financing for water supply and sanitation investments in Brazil.[16] For small towns and rural areas a major source of funding is the National Health Foundation FUNASA under the Ministry of Health, which has invested 890 million Reales in 3,500 municipalities benefitting 11.43 million people between 1995 and 1999 [17]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program [1]
- ^ WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program [2]
- ^ ibid
- ^ PROSANEAR
- ^ ASSEMAE
- ^ AESBE
- ^ ABCON [3]
- ^ ABCON
- ^ OMS 2000, Section 3 [4]
- ^ Da Silva 2006 [5]
- ^ PAC
- ^ SNIS Diagnostic 2005, p.102-107
- ^ ADERASA/PPIAF/World Bank: Las tarifas de agua potable y alcantarillado en America Latina, 2005, p. 55
- ^ SNIS Diagnostic 2005, p. 98
- ^ SNIS Diagnostic 2005, p. 100
- ^ Caixa
- ^ FUNASA, Saneamiento at FUNASA
[edit] External links
- Ministry of Cities, National Secretariat of Environmental Sanitation (in Portuguese)Cidades
- National water and sanitation information system (in Portuguese) SNIS
- Brazilian Federal Applied Economic Research Institute (in Portuguese)IPEA
- WHO Evaluation (in Portuguese) Brasil
- WHO/UNICEF JMP
- World Bank Low Income Sanitation Technical Assistance Project PROSANEAR
- World Bank Second Water Sector Modernization Project
[edit] Comments
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