Rio, March 22, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - Only 47% of Brazil's 5,507 municipalities possess the four basic sanitation service: water supply, sewage, rainwater drainage, and garbage collection. The last of these is the one with the widest coverage in the country. According to the Sanitation Atlas, released today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 125 thousand tons of residential garbage were collected in Brazil in 2000. An impressive quantity.

The problem is the final destination of this garbage, since it was discovered that approximately 63% of municipalities use trash pits, considered an uncontrolled way to dispose of solid wastes on the land, without concern for environmental protection and public health. Another serious problem that was identified is the destination of hospital wastes. In 2000 only 9.5% of the municipalities transported health service wastes to special landfills.

The publication shows that urban sanitation has an enormous capacity to generate jobs. 317,744 people worked for muncipal or franchised services in 2000. This figure does not include the 24,340 pickers who operated in trash pits and also subsisted on this activity.

Translator: David Silberstein