Matheus Marques, Intern of the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research – special for InfoBRICS

Brazil has the best performance in ensuring the right to basic sanitation in terms of income level between BRICS countries. With more efficient measures to mitigate the lack of basic sanitation, the country aims to change the reality of 100 million householders who have limited access to these services. Transforming this reality is essential to promote sustainable development in the country and consequently change the sanitation infrastructure in Brazil.

The situation in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro Guanabara Bay is very delicate. Particularly with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, it was expected that the water pollution in the area would be reduced through governmental efforts. Because of the Olympics, the city mayor made some promises saying that he would change this situation, what did not happen. Today, the concentration of pollutants and other materials in the water increased as the society and the politicians did not take effective actions to improve this reality. Even after Rio 2016, the contamination is still there and the environment is suffering with the consequences of the secular daily habits of the people and their representatives.

Guanabara’s contamination is also seen across other Brazilian regions as a recent study advises. In 2017, in spite of being a country with some of the most important river basins, Brazil had cities where only 1% of the population had access to basic sanitation services. There were capitals like Belém and Macapá (cities from the North region) where only respectively 13% and 9% of the population had sewage collection. As a capital from the South East Region, Rio scored 85% on the other hand.

Nonetheless, the World Bank estimates that 88% of Brazil is using at least basic sanitation services, what is a good score between emerging economies. Comparing to other BRICS countries, Russia scores 90%, China has 84%, South Africa performed 75% and despite the exponential improvement, India represents the worst percentage with only 59%.

As highlighted before, it is worth seeing that even if Brazil scores better than other countries in basic sanitation services, it still faces a huge problem towards implementing quality sanitation services. For example, São Paulo has been increasingly producing more sewage and trash than ever. As the city already has more than 18 million inhabitants living in the metropolitan area, the water pollution is getting higher day by day. Considering that most of the water resources are not being recuperated and treated as they should be, this causes a huge crisis for drinking supply.

Just like in Rio, wastewater can cause eutrophication, leading to a huge increase of the biochemical demand for oxygen, reducing the living conditions for microorganisms, plants and animals in aquatic ecosystems. If the wastewater is not treated properly, this also means that humans may be drinking polluted water rather than the potable one. Once the wastewater is not freshwater, it will later bring effects towards terrestrial ecosystems and consequently lead to environmental issues for life on land.

Sustainable Development

The Agenda 2030 of the United Nations, in its Sustainable Development Goals, recognizes that it is extremely important to mitigate this scenario. The SDG 6 takes into account the need for Clean Water and Sanitation, the 12th focuses on Responsible Consumption and Production, while the 14th (Life below Water) and the 15th (Life on Land) address the preservation of life on earth.

Especially for wastewater management, the SDG 6 shall be considered because it is associated with basic sanitation and efficient urban engineering to treat wastewater and reduce any possible harm to the environment and the society. With responsible human beings who take the SDG 12 into account, the wastewater will be reduced and so will the need for wastewater systems.

According to the SDG 14 and 15, to protect the species and the ecosystems in which humans, animals, microorganisms and plants live, the society and the government must implement efficient measures to treat wastewater in order to avoid any possible contamination of water resources, soils, groundwater and the whole environment.

Considering Brazil’s reality, it is possible to see that sustainable development is still far away from the context of Brazilian householders, besides developing countries. To clarify, basic sanitation is still a privilege as 90% of Least Developed Countries do not have wastewater systems. Furthermore, if a country has low GDP per capita, it is very likely that it does not have a good treatment and an efficient connection to collect and treat wastewater.

Moreover, there are many factors that contribute to a poor sanitary infrastructure such as solid trash, sewage, microplastics, home appliances and particularly oil such as the one used in small boats and ships. When those chemicals and products are transported into the water resources, they create a vicious cycle of contamination just like in Brazil’s biggest metropoles.

Basic Sanitation Services

From a different approach, Brazil has been allocating much more economic resources to ensure the right to basic sanitation than other emerging economies, the 2018 HRMI Rights Tracker suggests.

As a low/middle income country, Brazil is investing 80,4% of what is possible in terms of its national income level to promote the right to access basic sanitation services. Between BRICS countries, this is the best score as India invests only 55,3%, South Africa represents 63,5%, China corresponds to 75% and Russia is equal to 79,1%. With HRMI and World Bank data, this reality demonstrates that Brazil is a reference in basic sanitation for the developing world.

Still, the country is reforming its national laws so that every Brazilian can have basic sanitation services by 2033. This happens because in spite of the good overall scores, Brazil is a huge country with many social inequalities, being one of them the lack of public policies to universalize these services.

The New Regulatory Framework for Sanitation, which changed sanitation laws in Brazil, was implemented to improve the life of 100 million people that do not have wastewater collection. The lack of wastewater management is similarly a big problem because it causes socioeconomic impacts ranging from health issues to less years of education and lower GDP per capita. According to the national Investment Partnerships Program, the new law is equally necessary because it will open this sector for private investments.

In conclusion, Brazil has many cities that do not have basic sanitation services regardless of the positive results achieved by the country. The Latin-American state is a good motivator for other developing economies as it has the best scores for sanitation services and the highest percentage of proportional public expenditure allocation for basic sanitation.

Over time, the country has improved the sanitation infrastructure in the country as shown by the analyzed data. However, cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo highlighted that many promises that remain in the past are devasting the future of water resources and aquatic ecosystems in the country. This affects the human health and represents a serious threat to the implementation of sustainable initiatives to mitigate the impact of untreated wastewater and the lack of quality public services across the country.