Public policy of sanitation: an analysis of recent Brazilian experience

Abstract

The sanitation policy in Brazil has been experiencing a new cycle with the legal, regulatory and institutional and renewed investments. This trajectory has revealed tensions and contradictions inherent in a political-ideological context characterized by deep ties to the power structure and the capitalist social relations. Thus, this article aims at studying the recent policy of sanitation in Brazil. The study, based on qualitative and quantitative, involved collecting data on the Federal Government investment in the period from 2004 to 2009. The data revealed that investment has not dialogued with the profile of deficits services. The contexts fiscal, macroeconomic policy, investment of resources, access rules and eligibility criteria are factors that have influenced the results of Federal Government programs. The tradition techno-bureaucratic, patrimonialism, the weaknesses of the state apparatus, corruption and decline of social movements contestation the last decade influenced the advancement of a political project aimed at social and environmental justice. The task involves the universalization of a political effort of society, to treat sanitation as a social right and parcel of a policy with strong state action. From this perspective will need to review the relationship between state, capital and society in social policy and priority.