Water for sale: from the Thames to the Amazon

The Ecologist

Drawing on CICTAR’s recent report looking into financing of water and sanitation in Brazil, The Ecologist magazine explains how Britain’s water privatisation concept is being exported to Brazil, leading to the same stories of polluted rivers, collapsing ecosystems and communities left adrift.

‘Britain's failed water model is no longer contained within its borders. It’s now being exported to countries like Brazil.’

‘Brazil’s sanitation crisis is often blamed on geography or lack of development, but this is misleading, as it’s one of the most water-rich countries on Earth. The problem isn’t scarcity, but political decisions about who controls water and who it’s meant to serve.’

‘Livi Gerbase CICTAR researcher, frames access to water and sanitation as one of the clearest expressions of inequality in Brazil.’

“Access to water and sanitation is one of the strongest indicators of inequality in Brazil. Around 40 per cent of the population still lacks access to proper water and sanitation systems.”

The Ecologist explains how The failures in water and sanitation services in Brazil fall disproportionally on poorer, racialised and rural communities, particularly in the North and Northeast of the country.

‘This is environmental injustice, not technical failure. These outcomes reflect political choices about ownership, financing and regulation, mirroring the path taken by the UK in the late 1980s, when water was removed from public control and redefined as a commercial service rather than shared resource.’

‘In 2020, Brazil passed the New Sanitation Legal Framework, promising near-universal of sanitation and water supply by 2033.’ 

‘According to an analysis by CICTAR and the Union of Workers in Water, Sewage and Environment in the State of Bahia, SINDAE, this method was familiar: privatisation, private finance, and protections designed to reassure investors.’

‘Municipalities in Brazil were encouraged to auction off water and sewage services through concessions lasting up to 35 years. Brazil’s national development bank, BNDES, plays a central role, structuring deals and absorbing risk ‘

‘Gerbase describes how Brazil’s 2020 sanitation reforms accelerated privatisation and shifted financial risk onto the public.’

“After the 2020 sanitation reforms, privatisation accelerated and international investors moved in. Incentivised debentures became a key tool, allowing companies to raise large sums quickly while the real cost is carried out by the public, not by companies or local authorities.”

The parallels between the failures of water privatization in the UK and Brazil draw on recent CICTAR research on BRK Ambiental, Brazil’s largest sanitation operator, controlled by Canadian asset manager Brookfield, a major player in Britain’s privatised infrastructure and a familiar presence in the UK water sector.