Análise da gestão de água e esgotos em dois municípios mineiros : a relação entre atores institucionais e comunidades rurais

Abstract

The human rights to water and sanitation sewage must be guaranteed to the population residing in rural areas, as stated in Resolution A/RES/64/292, published in 2010 by the UN, an organization to which Brazil is a signatory. However, in practice these rights are not implemented widely, contributing to the maintenance of inequalities in access and to the permanence of the deficit in rural areas and informal and precarious urban settlements. The management model adopted at the municipal headquarters does not always provide services in rural areas, despite this absence largely affecting the environmental health throughout the municipal territory. In many cases, the criteria that determine the provision of services follow the principle of economy of scale and consider the distance to the decisive headquarters for serving rural areas. Thus, the lack of incentives for social participation in sanitation actions and the fragmentation of urban/rural management are persistent obstacles that prevent the entire population from accessing public services. In this context, this study analyzes how the management models represented by the State Basic Sanitation Company (CESB) and by the Municipal Autarchy Autonomous Water and Sewage Services (SAAE), adopted in the headquarters of the respective Municipalities of Divinópolis and Itaúna, in the State of Minas Gerais, affect the service of its rural areas, seeking to reveal the effects of the relationships between the actors involved: institutional managers and rural populations. Official documents were analyzed, as well as textual material generated through interviews with managers and community leaders and through focus groups carried out with residents of two rural agglomerations in each municipality. The theoretical-methodological construct of Critical Discourse Analysis (ADC) enabled data interpretation and directed the analytical process of empirical data to its three underlying dimensions: textual, discursive practice and social practice. For the Municipality of Divinópolis, the service provision contract entered into between the Municipality and the Sanitation Company of Minas Gerais (Copasa), the Municipal Basic Sanitation Plan and the Participatory Master Plan were analyzed. The analysis allowed inferences about the engagement of public managers in relation to rural sanitation and about the need for actions that integrate rural and urban demands. The reports of actors involved in the research highlighted a problematizing view of the current management of water and sewage, since the network of discourses investigated revealed hegemonic practices in terms of politics, contributing to the persistence of urban/rural fragmentation. In relation to the Municipality of Itaúna, the Participatory Master Plan, the Technical Notes of the Regulatory Agency and the Municipal Basic Sanitation Plan were analyzed. The analysis of the official documents showed a unified management throughout the Municipality. The Autarchy complies with the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitary sewage for a significant portion of rural households, with a slow tendency towards future expansions. In both Municipalities, the hegemonic practices of the management models provide different evaluations in the rural population: conformism and acceptance, in Divinópolis and Itaúna, respectively.