Sanitation as infrastructure of life: the Pará we are building today

On World Sanitation Day, it is important to reinforce that Brazil needs to face one of its greatest structural dilemmas: we are still a country where the lack of access to safe drinking water impacts nearly 17% of Brazilians, and where approximately 45% do not have sewage collection, as shown by recent data from the Trata Brasil Institute. The lack of basic sanitation causes illness, reduces opportunities, and perpetuates inequalities. 

Beyond the engineering aspect, sanitation is the infrastructure of life, the starting point for any society that aims to grow justly and sustainably, and that is precisely why this topic has become a pillar of the global climate debate, because where water security is lacking, vulnerability abounds.

It is in this context that the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém becomes symbolic. Amidst so many urgent issues, COP 30 opens space to bring a challenge to the discussion table that is as environmental as it is social: the universalization of sanitation with respect for the territory and its people.  

COP 30 in the Amazon is a historic opportunity to demonstrate that there is no climate agenda without a sanitation agenda. 

But there is good news amidst the network of concerns surrounding basic sanitation in the Amazon: possible paths exist. The New Sanitation Framework, regionalization projects, and public-private partnerships bring pace, predictability, and investment capacity. These solutions are already beginning to contribute to transforming realities in states like Pará.
Here, we are proving that it is possible to combine technology, planning, and social dialogue to transform historical realities. In just three months, Vila da Barca, in Belém, received 2.3 km of elevated water networks, designed to cope with the tidal flood periods in the stilt-house areas and prevent system contamination, benefiting over 5,000 people. The infrastructure came with the guarantee of a Social Tariff for these residents, a tool for inclusion through sanitation. 

The next stage of the transformation in Vila da Barca is underway, with the installation of another 2.5 km of sewage networks, enabling the collection and treatment of effluents, and thereby protecting the health of residents and the region’s waters. Each meter of network installed and every water connection completed means one less child falling ill, one more family living with peace of mind, and protection for the environment. 

The attention given to Vila da Barca demonstrates the commitment made to more than 5 million residents of  Pará across 126 municipalities that will be served by Águas do Pará and benefit from the largest investment in sanitation ever made in the history of the Legal Amazon: R$ 18.7 billion over 40 years, with R$ 871 million to be applied in the very first year of operation.

On World Sanitation Day, it must be reaffirmed: this is the time for connecting agendas. It is when the fundamental right to sanitation meets the global responsibility to protect the planet. It is when Brazil shows that development and sustainability can and must walk side by side, and that only in this way it will be possible to move forward in Pará, in the Amazon, and across the entire planet. After all, caring for sanitation is caring for people and the climate.

André Facó holds a Master's degree in Environmental Sanitation and is the CEO of Águas do Pará