WATER AND SEWAGE SERVICES PROVIDED BY BRAZILIAN REGIONAL COMPANIES

Abstract

Well-organized and universalized water and sewage services are key to regional development as directly impact the quality of life and economic growth. In this sense the work shown and analyzed its results for the year 2009 six basic indicators: average tariff, distribution losses index, service with treated water, service with sewage treatment, sewage treatment rate and metering rate, relative to Brazilian regional water and sewage providing companies. We used Geographic Information System (GIS) as technique, with the software Philcarto for generating the maps. This study enabled us to observe differences in the actions and investments in sanitation (water and sewage) in each Brazilian state and the urgent need for approval and implementation of the National Sanitation Plan to solve public problems of this industry so important to national health, human rights, infrastructure, environment and economic issues.

Key Words: public policy, regional services providers, sanitation indicators, water and sewage services.