The approval of the new legal framework for sanitation, in 2020, provided the basis for the country’s upgrade in terms of coverage of water and sewage services for the population. The adequacy of regulation created greater competition in the market and promoted a more excellent search for improving the offer of services to achieve the universalization of basic sanitation.

According to data from the Private Participation in Sanitation 2021 Overview, an annual publication by ABCON SINDCON, private concessionaires are present in 7% of municipalities and fully or partially serve 15% of the country’s population, corresponding to 31.6 million people.

It is important to highlight that the period before the legal framework suffered stagnation, between 2015 and 2019. In 2019, R$4.85 billion was invested by private operators, compared to a total investment of R$14.8 billion, considering all operators. In terms of investment, private sanitation concessions have already reached 33%.

For the next 12 years, the planned investment is R$753 billion. With this, the goal is to expand the water and sewage networks so that the country achieves universal services (99% of drinking water and 90% of collected and treated sewage). All investments impact the Brazilian economy significantly, generating more than 14 million jobs with a multiplication of around R$1.4 trillion and almost R$90 billion in tax revenue.

Source: ABCON SINDCON

Source: 2023 Panorama of private sector participation in sanitation (page 31)