CUT: Temer wants to make people pay for urban cleaning through their water bills.

247 The Unified Workers' Central (CUT) criticized Provisional Measure (MP) 844/2018 – the 'Sanitation MP' – sent to the National Congress by the Michel Temer (MDB) government, which, in addition to privatizing the country's basic sanitation, foresees that urban cleaning fees, such as garbage collection, will be charged on Brazilians' water and sewage bills. In case of non-payment, both urban cleaning and water and sewage services may be cut off by the private companies providing the services, but the government does not specify how this cut-off would be carried out.

The bill also includes an article that is expected to pressure municipalities to create garbage collection fees – something currently done in only 4% of cities, according to the Brazilian Association of Public Cleaning Companies (Abrelpe). Again, the measure does not clarify how these charges would be levied or how the service would be monitored.

“In practice, the measure foresees the privatization of basic sanitation in Brazil,” criticizes Edson Aparecido da Silva, sanitation advisor at the National Federation of Urban Workers (FNU). The reports were published on the website of CUT.

If the bill is approved, in addition to the fees charged to the population, the municipalities that are responsible for their own basic sanitation will be required to open a bidding process to allow private companies to provide the public service.

According to the FNU advisor, any privatization process of public services inevitably leads to harm for the population, since the private sector only aims for profit. "Therefore, in addition to charging the urban cleaning fee on Brazilians' bills, there will certainly be an increase in tariffs," he warns.

Aparecido da Silva also says that the Provisional Measure could also prevent the practice of cross-subsidization – a mechanism in which municipalities with surpluses subsidize those with deficits, thus funding investments in these smaller municipalities. “Temer's policy is to exclude low-income people from the development and well-being process. Therefore, the FNU will fight to have the Provisional Measure rejected in Congress,” he emphasizes.

More controversies

Another controversial point of the Provisional Measure is the one that transforms the National Water Agency (ANA) into a federal regulatory agency for sanitation, since the Constitution states that basic sanitation is a prerogative of the municipalities.

Experts in the field also criticize the coup government's haste in privatizing the service through a Provisional Measure rather than a Bill, which would have allowed for discussion with society and municipalities about the economic impacts of the decision.

The initial validity period of a Provisional Measure is 60 days and is automatically extended for an equal period if its voting is not concluded in both Houses of the National Congress. If it is not considered within 45 days of its publication, it enters into an urgency regime, overriding all other legislative deliberations of Congress that are in progress.  

A draft bill would take longer to be approved and would be discussed with society at large.

*With information from CUT