Marina Silva: Political will needed to achieve universal sanitation

Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva stated on Monday (May 26) that achieving universal basic sanitation in Brazil by 2030 will require going beyond the provisions already set in law.

“We need a political will and the commitment to prioritize it, ensuring that this translates into effort indicators supported by financial, human, and ecological resources, coordination capacity, and a forward-looking vision with technological innovation,” said the minister.

Silva made the statement during a keynote speech at the 33rd Brazilian Congress of Environmental Sanitary Engineering in Brasília, stressing that Brazil must make the issue a priority.

“Basic sanitation is about health, development, creating jobs and income — and even improving education for our children,” said the minister.

According to data from the Trata Brasil Institute’s Sanitation Panel, nearly 16 percent of Brazilians lack access to drinking water, while 44.5 percent are without sewage collection. The figures are from the National Sanitation System for 2021, the most recent available.

The minister says that addressing the country’s sanitation challenge requires extensive coordination between the public and private sectors, civil society, and the scientific community to move laws from paper into concrete economic, social, environmental, cultural, and even civilizational benefits.

“What I really want is to see effort indicators reflected not only in the actions of the federal, state, and municipal governments, but also in the National Congress, which passes laws and approves tax amendments worth trillions of reals,” she noted.

COP30

As part of the congress, the Brazilian Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (ABES) launched the COP Sanitation Space, aimed at bringing together models and innovations for the sector in line with the climate agenda.

“The sanitation sector is working closely with municipal, state, and especially federal governments to coordinate this effort, as water is where the impacts of climate change are most directly felt—whether through scarcity or abundance,” explains Marcel Costa Sanches, national president of ABES.

According to the institution, the goal is to showcase a platform of sustainable solutions at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), scheduled for November in Belém, Pará state. “COP Sanitation Space was created as a strategic platform to demonstrate how sanitation practically contributes to addressing global climate challenges and advancing the country’s sustainable development,” said Sanches.

According to Marina Silva, discussions about climate justice are incomplete without addressing water justice, which encompasses access to treated water and basic sanitation.

“There is no way to combat climate change without addressing its multiple vectors. Sanitation plays a key role in reducing methane emissions, alongside the production of clean, renewable energy through distributed generation. Waste treatment can serve as a source of clean energy,” the minister concluded.