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The English translation of the book "Successful Experiences in Municipal Public Water and Sanitation Services from Brazil" (first published in Portuguese in June 2006 by ASSEMAE) is now online at
The book presents twenty examples of successful public water delivery in large and small, wealthy and poor municipalities across Brazil. The city of Porto Alegre is already known around the world for its use of participatory budgeting and other democratic reforms to achieve universal access to clean water. The book shows that similar approaches are used in many other cities in Brazil and in many cases have led to rapid expansion of access to water and sanitation for the poorest communities.
Examples are the city of Alagoinhas (140,000 inhabitants) in the poor north-east of Brazil and Santo Andre (670,000 inhabitants) in the industrial region around Sao Paolo. The cases in the book, selected by a group of water sector specialists following strict criteria, show that public water utilities can achieve universal access, also in very difficult socio-economic circumstances. Key features of the successes presented in the book are a strong political will to improve public water delivery and, importantly, "social control": reforms that boost citizen's involvement and democratic control over public services.
"Successful Experiences in Municipal Public Water and Sanitation Services from Brazil" is a translation of "Experiências de Êxito em Serviços Públicos Municipais de Saneamento", first published in Portuguese in June 2006 by ASSEMAE, the federation of more than 1,700 public water and sanitation companies from municipalities from across Brazil.
The translated edition of the book is a joint effort by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Transnational Institute (TNI) and the World Development Movement (WDM).