A corrida da água: reflexões sobre o avanço das parcerias público privadas no setor de saneamento básico no Estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The importance of basic sanitation services transcend their benefits as a infrastructure’s sector, given their impact on public health, environment, education, development and human emancipation. For contemplating the services of water supply, sanitary wastewater treatment, urban cleaning, solid waste management, drainage and management of storm water, essential resources for human dignity and survival, basic sanitation was raised to condition of human and social right. The degradation of these resources, and, in return, the progressive shortage of water, showed a real run for economic exploration of services by private entities. In this scenario, and with the redemocratization of the 90's, numerous legal instruments will allow the insertion of private agents to perform in this sector. The advancement of the legislation included the concession’s law, public consortia and public-private partnerships, promoting privatization and financialization of sector. Based on the need for investment bottlenecks and the fiscal crisis, the State of Minas Gerais, influenced by international experience, was a pioneer in introducing into the legal framework the forecast and regulation of public-private partnerships, which was inaugurated in the basic sanitation sector by Sanitation Company of the State of Minas Gerais, Copasa, with a view to expanding the Sanitary Sewage System of the Itapecerica System (Divinópolis) and expanding the Rio Manso System (Belo Horizonte). Based on this cut, the studies were developed with the aim of analyzing whether the institution of these public-private partnerships in basic sanitation, in Minas Gerais, had implications or contradictions for the effectiveness of the services. The methodological path was organized through a qualitative approach, based on documentary research. The data analysis is guided by analysis categories, which were organized in order to facilitate the processing of raw data and obtain the results, from inference and interpretation. Through the analysis it was possible to conclude that the public-private partnerships in both cases that make up the study cut, resulted in limitations and contradictions in relation to the realization of the services, issues that allowed us to reach our considerations regarding basic sanitation.