Saneamento na América Latina: panorama das trajetórias institucional e do nível dos serviços de água e esgoto na Bolívia, no Chile, no México e no Peru

Abstract

Sanitation is a fundamental human right and crucial for the development of a country, directly affecting social well-being through topics such as health, environment, labor productivity, early childhood education and tourism. The new legal framework for sanitation in Brazil, recently approved, is accompanied by the expectation of new investments. In view of this perspective, this article analyzes the evolution of the sector in four Latin American countries (Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and Peru), seeking to understand how its institutional and servisse coverage development was, and identifying the main existing challenges. The comparative analysis of the sanitation services trajectory in each country helps identify some of the sector´s central policy issues, as well as which elements can facilitate or hinder the service coverage evolution. Evidence suggests that greater coverage is linked to institutional capacity of the public power, that is, to the ability to diagnose investment needs, plan the expansion of services, contract financing, provide technical assistance, carry out regulation, among other activities.