Regionalizing sanitation laws at state level

The structuring of governance between states and municipalities

Abstract

The Federal Law 14.026/20, denominated as New Brazilian Sanitation Framework, instituted the regional provision as a principle (art. 2, XIV), reinforcing existing concepts and creating models (art. 3, VI), urging subnational entities to implement it, by imposing deadlines to the States for the creation of regional models and, to the municipalities, the adherence to governance structures, using spending power to access fiscal resources from the Union for investments in the sector. In the face of the new scenario of basic sanitation, the specificities related to regionalized provision structures, their modalities, whether optional or mandatory, and repercussions on the exercise of ownership were analyzed. Once the new format of sanitation was understood, the analysis of the governance of the management of regionalized provision began, understanding its concept and debating its challenges facing the sharing of competences resulting from the regionalized model. It started to analyze the different conformations of the interfederative governance structures established in the regulatory state legislation of the already approved regionalized provision structures, identifying patterns and establishing differences between the models adopted by different federal units. In conclusion, it was found that the laws that work with regionalized provision have a reasonable degree of objectivity, but a strong concentration of decision-making power in the hands of the State was observed, to the detriment of the Municipalitiesthat, in any of the structural hypotheses, under the Constitutional perspective, harm the balance of cooperation federalism; and, in terms of the effectiveness of the model, in the case of Regional Basic Sanitation Units, it can be compromised with low adherence.