Fighting for human rights to water in times of sanitary crisis: social pricing for affordable water in Brazil

BACKGROUND AND AIM: ONDAS (Observatório Nacional dos Direitos à Água e ao Saneamento – National Observatory of Water and Sanitation Rights – homepage: https://ondasbrasil.org/) which acronym means WAVES in English, is an entity congregating professionals, academics, students and activist from urban, rural, water and forest grassroots movements. Emerged from 2018 Alternative World Water Forum, the observatory is dedicated to production and dissemination of critical knowledge and presents itself as a platform of technical and political action fighting for human rights to water and sanitation. METHODS: Amidst the ongoing encroachment of ultraliberal efforts to privatise sanitation services in Brazil, ONDAS has been campaigning resistance strategies in favour of public systems of sanitation, accessible to all and held accountable through wide social participation. The observatory also joined solidarity efforts to provide aid for low-income urban population, who have been suffering the most from the many disruptions brought by COVID-19, worsened by Bolsonaro’s genocidal politics. RESULTS:One of ONDAS’ output from its strategy of producing critical knowledge is the newly published e-book “Water as a Right: Social Pricing as Strategy for Affordability”. Discussing the human right to water and sanitation service, this publication focuses on the analysis of social pricing as instrument to make such services affordable based on a research conducted in seven Brazilian capitals and the Federal District. The benefits of social pricing are examined in cities with different arrangements for sanitation provision, and the analysis highlights possibilities of promoting the instrument to assure better supply of services to people in most need. CONCLUSIONS:Social pricing is understood as one of the strategies towards affordability, since even low cost solutions may still be unaffordable for people living in poverty. It is understood that the minimum amount of potable water to allow drinking, cooking, house cleaning, and personal hygiene must be provided for everyone, in every condition. KEYWORDS: Water quality, Socio-economic factors, Policy and practice, COVID-19