page_title: Water supply and sanitation in Brazil
section_title: The Lula administration (2003–2011)
hierarchical_section_title: Water supply and sanitation in Brazil / History and recent developments / The Lula administration (2003–2011)
caption_attribution_description: English: Barra da Tijuca Plant Português: Estação de Tratamento da Barra da Tijuca
context_page_description: Access to at least basic water increased from 94% to 97% between 2000 and 2015; an increase in access to at least basic sanitation from 73% to 86% in the same period;
  Brazil has a national system to finance water and sanitation infrastructure; [a high level of cost recovery compared to most other developing countries.
  A high number of poor Brazilians live in urban slums and in rural areas without access to piped water or sanitation. Water is scarce in the northeast of Brazil. Water pollution is common, especially in the southeast of the country. Brazil has a low share of collected wastewater that is being treated, and long-standing tensions between the federal, state and municipal governments about their respective roles in the sector.
context_section_description: In January 2003 President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed office. In the same year his government created a Ministry of Cities with a National Department of Environmental Sanitation, entrusted with the responsibility  to monitor sector performance and to establish directives for "basic sanitation" (including water supply, sewerage, wastewater treatment and solid waste management, which are all covered by the Portuguese term saneamento básico). At the same time the Council of Cities was established, which has an important role in advising on sanitation policy and in approving it. The strengthening of the sector policy authority at the federal and municipal levels represented "a major departure from the past, when the provincial states had the leadership in basic sanitation policy".
  In January 2007, at the beginning of his second term, the President 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. Léo Heller, professor of sanitary and environmental engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, even called it "arguably the most important legislative innovation in basic sanitation sector in decades".
  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.
caption: Water treatment plant Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro
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