IAS: six years supporting universal sanitation

The world of 2019, the year the Instituto Água e Saneamento - IAS (Water and Sanitation Institute) was founded, was very different from today. The pandemic had not yet arrived, and the severity of the climate crisis was little understood. In sanitation, the review of the Legal Framework, which profoundly redesigned the sector, had yet to be approved. Private providers were a minority in Brazil. 

Since then, the Institute has been making efforts to expand access to sanitation in Brazil. We organize information and knowledge, raise awareness, monitor developments in the sector and beyond, connect stakeholders and campaigns across public and private spheres, and strengthen cross-cutting themes such as climate change and human rights within the sanitation agenda. 

During this time, we launched data tools such as the Legal Framework Observatory and Municipalities and Sanitation, which allow people to explore key aspects of the sanitation sector. The first addresses the impacts of Law 14,026/2020, detailing the regionalization processes in the Brazilian states through maps and figures. The second tool provides access to data on water supply, sanitation, drainage and solid waste management across 5,570 municipalities in the country.

We have also invested in publications that support data dissemination and analysis, including overviews such as “Saneamento 2020” (“Sanitation 2020”), “Saneamento 2021” (“Sanitation 2021”) and the “Novo Tabuleiro do Saneamento Básico 2024” (“New 2024 Sanitation Chart”) -which will have a new issue in 2025-, all available for download here on the IAS website. Additional publications explore sanitation in the context of elections: “Municípios e Saneamento nas Eleições 2024″ (“Municipalities and Sanitation in the 2024 Elections”); water, sanitation and inequality: “Água e saneamento nas escolas brasileiras: indicadores de desigualdade racial a partir do Censo Escolar” (“Water and Sanitation in Brazilian Schools: Indicators of Racial Inequality Based on the School Census”); and adaptation to climate change: “Adaptação e Saneamento – Por um setor resiliente às mudanças climáticas” (“Adaptation and Sanitation – For a Sector Resilient to Climate Change”). 

We held five editions of World Toilet Day in Brazil. The date is part of a global awareness campaign promoted by the UN to highlight key issues related to sustainability and human rights. One of IAS’s goals is to bring visibility to this day in the country. Online debates, informational websites, urban interventions, and influencer campaigns were some of the actions we carried out to expand the World Toilet Day cause.

In terms of coordination, one of IAS’s core areas of work, we have joined important national and international networks, including SWA (Sanitation and Water for All), the Climate Observatory, and the 2030 Agenda Working Group. In 2023, we led a mobilization effort that culminated in the participation of a Brazilian government representative at the UN Water Conference in New York. In 2024, we launched the Water and Sanitation Forum, a permanent space for dialogue and idea exchange. 

To mark the Institute's six years of activity, we prepared a timeline highlighting our key milestones and accomplishments. We remain committed to contributing to a more inclusive and high-quality sanitation system in Brazil.

Learn more

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