With more contracts and a new milestone, sanitation advances on the coast of SP

With the quality of beaches in São Paulo falling in 2022, Sabesp is anticipating investments to pursue the goal of collecting and treating 90% of the sewage on the coast of São Paulo by 2023, a requirement imposed by the sanitation framework approved in 2020. It also provides for distribution of drinking water to 99% of the population.

In 13 municipalities with contracts with Sabesp, sewage coverage (collected and treated) ranges from 99.4% in Santos to 54% in Ubatuba. Ironically, the city on the north coast that always appears as one of the main destinations in the summer is the one with the least coverage on the edge of the state.

Until 2018, many cities on the coast of São Paulo did not have formal contracts with Sabesp. Under these conditions, the company made few investments, claiming to run the risk of the municipality appropriating the infrastructure and charging tariffs on its own — or transferring the service to another company. One of the exceptions was Santos.

As of 2019 (2020 in the case of Ubatuba), contracts have been signed and, with the sanitation framework approved, investments have been growing year by year.

In addition to the contributions already made in the 2021-2022 biennium (see table), Sabesp foresees investments of R$ 3.5 billion for the collection and treatment of sewage on the coast between 2023 and 2027, according to the company’s CEO, Benedito Braga.

The biggest challenge for the municipalities and for Sabesp now is the regularization of thousands of homes built in irregular areas. Only in Baixada Santos, there are 360 ​​favelas. In order to connect their homes to the sewage network, Sabesp presses for the residences to be regularized —making it possible to charge for the sanitation service.

A good part of Sabesp’s investments are carried out with low-interest loans from international organizations, which normally require formal contracts with the cities served and the regularization of housing for the release of funds —since the fee charged is the financing guarantee.

Survey of Sheet showed that of the 178 points evaluated by Cetesb (an environmental company from São Paulo) on the coast, only 44 were suitable for bathing every week between November 2021 and October 2022, compared to 59 in the same previous period.

The beaches evaluated as regular rose from 61 to 80; and the worst, from 14 to 18.

One of Cetesb’s explanations is that excessive rainfall in the first half of 2022 worsened the quality of the rivers that flow onto the beaches. A fact that reinforces both the need to connect irregular dwellings on the banks of rivers to the network and to improve garbage collection on the coast.

Basically, there are two ways of dealing with sewage on the coast: dumping it in natura on the high seas, through underwater outfalls of up to 5 km; or connecting homes to large pipes (usually on the waterfront) that pump sewage to treatment plants.

Residually, on beaches far from the center, residences use septic tanks. One of the problems, according to Luana Pretto, president of the Trata Brasil Institute, is that normally their owners do not drain them frequently, causing contamination of the soil and, later, of rivers and the sea.

São Paulo has several submarine outfalls, all with railing systems to prevent larger residues and garbage from being thrown into the sea.

“There are environmentalist currents that criticize the emissaries, but they are common in places like California and in other countries”, says Braga.

According to Jerson Kelman, former president of Sabesp and ANA (National Water and Sanitation Agency), the emissaries are efficient and keep the beaches clean, while sewage is diluted and dissipated, without major environmental damage, on the high seas. “The problem is that they are very expensive,” he says.

Thus, on most beaches along the coast, the solution is to connect sewage points from houses to large pipes and, with pumps, take the waste to treatment stations.

This type of work is now being concluded in Ubatuba, with the goal of increasing sewage collection in the city from the current 54% to 64% in the short term, until it reaches the 90% predicted in the sanitation framework.

According to Rui Cesar Bueno, Sabesp’s superintendent on the north coast, of the investments of R$ 670 million foreseen for Ubatuba in the contract, 71% (R$ 475 million) must be invested until 2025 to catch up with the municipality’s delay in relation to the rest of the coast .

Investments are made both in the collection tube network and in improvements to the five treatment stations run by Sabesp in Ubatuba. The city and the north coast also have outfalls: Enseada/Perequê and Araçá, in Ubatuba; Itaquanduba, in Ilhabela; and Cicadas, in São Sebastião

“The realization of investments, however, also depends on the regularization of housing so that they can be connected to the sewer network”, says Bueno.

On the trendy Itamambuca beach, on the north coast of Ubatuba, for example, there are dozens of residences close to the Itamambuca river, many of them from the middle class, who resist regularization in order not to pay tariffs—and who end up dumping part of their sewage into the river that runs give on the beach. In this corner of the waterfront, the water is often inadequate, according to Cetesb.

The same occurs in some parts of Ilhabela, which have houses owned by wealthy owners, which Braga, from Sabesp, refers to as “luxury favelas”.

Bueno cites Caraguatatuba, also on the north coast, south of Ubatuba, as an example of a municipality that rushed to carry out regularization. With 90% of the residences in good standing, the city has 91% of its sewage collected and treated, in addition to 99% of the houses having drinking water.