Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About the publication - 3rd edition

A central issue in the Brazilian public agenda, universalization of basic sanitation is a challenge yet to be overcome in the country in the 20th century.

With the objective of expanding the debate on this topic, the IBGE brings into view the third edition of the Sanitation Atlas, by means of which it reinforces the commitment of providing updated information not only about the quality of sanitation services in the country but also of issues related to public health, the environment and citizenship involved in this reality. In order to reach this objective, the Institute provides an assessment of the indicators in the National Survey of Basic Sanitation – PNSB 2017, conducted by the Institute, thus strengthening the conviction that the interpretation of statistics is reinforced when associated to the territory-based focus of Geography. To these data were added contributions from other surveys conducted by the IBGE, such as the Survey of Basic Municipal Information – Munic, which, in 2017, investigated this topic as a supplementary edition, besides data from external institutions, such as the Unified Health System Data Processing Department (Datasus), the National Water Agency and Oswaldo Cruz Foundation – Fiocruz, whose valuable contributions led to deeper approaches in this edition, in spatial analysis, such as the hydrographic regions. The correlations with indicators of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – presented in some chapters, evidence to what extent this publication is in line with international discussions about the impact of basic sanitation in several dimensions of human health and of the planet.

The publication is organized into five chapters, formed by texts, maps, graphs and tables. The first chapter, Spatial distribution and coverage of water and sewage sanitation networks, deals with the geography of these networks and highlight the deep regional inequalities, despite the increase of water supply services by general systems and of sewage disposal networks since the first PNSB edition, in 1989. The second chapter, Quality and efficiency of sanitation networks, provides a spatial analysis of quality indicators end efficiency of basic sanitation services, with a focus on some of the aspects of collection, transportation, treatment, storage (in the case of water) and distribution (in the case of sewage). The third chapter, Basic sanitation and environment, approaches the integration between these two elements, by using, at times, the territory classification of hydrographic regions, of great importance to the water management in the country. The fourth chapter, Basic sanitation and public health, shows an overall view of these two dimensions combined, having as references the gross cumulative incidence of hospitalizations, as well as the number of cases reported and of deaths caused by diseases related to environmental sanitation between 2007 and 2019. The final chapter, Management of sanitation services, measures the main elements related to the administration of entities that render services in water supply and sewage disposal, in a context of state regulation and institutional normalization. A glossary, at the end of the publication, brings together the concepts considered essential for the understanding of topics approached.

We expect that this Atlas, which is also available at the Interactive Geographic Platform - PGI, on the IBGE website, can help the government and society have better territorial planning aiming at the formulation of local-targeted public policies that will lead to the universalization and improvement of basic sanitation in Brazil.