Training in Brazil: IWRM and governance of public-private partnerships for sanitation services

The training will focus on the theme of ‘Governance of public-private partnerships for sanitation services in the context of integrated water resource management – the French experience’. It will take place in person, in Portuguese, on 14 and 15 April 2026, in São Paulo.

Its objective is to strengthen the skills of water and sanitation service regulatory bodies by establishing the link between water management at the level of the large water cycle – the integrated water resources management (IWRM) – and that of the small water cycle, from drinking water supply to wastewater discharge.

The training will present France's experience with IWRM, covering its principles, objectives, implementation methods and governance issues at the basin and local authority levels.

The participation of public and private water stakeholders in decision-making, as well as the methods of financing and managing sanitation services, particularly in the context of public-private partnerships(the delegation of public services), will also be discussed.

In France, when we talk about public-private partnerships in the field of water and sanitation, we especially think of public service delegation. However, in practice, IWRM is also based on public-private partnerships, since the private sector is represented in the water user colleges of the Basin Committees and Local Water Commissions.

France and Brazil have similar legislation on water resource management and similar methods of implementing public-private partnerships: which include PPPs of user fees in France, called traditional concessions in Brazil, and the PPPs with public funding, called administrative or sponsored concessions in Brazil.

The Brazilian Water Law (Law No. 9,433 of 8 January 1997), which established the National Water Resources Policy and created the National Water Resources Management System, was inspired by the French experience, through cooperation implemented between 1988 and 1998.

This law laid the foundations for integrated and participatory water resource management and led to the creation of Water Agencies and Basin Committees in Brazil, as well as the implementation of basin plans and fees for water resource use.

Law No. 14,026 of 15 July 2020 defines the regulatory framework for the universalisation of basic sanitation services at the national level. It should be noted that in Brazil, the term ‘basic sanitation’ here includes drinking water, wastewater, solid urban waste, rainwater and drainage.

This regulatory framework aims to facilitate private participation in the sector through public-private partnerships (PPPs) or sub-delegations, particularly for cities served by public companies. It also sets national targets and has transformed the National Water Agency (ANA) into the National Water and Sanitation Agency, which, in addition to its mission of implementing national water resource management policy, has new responsibilities including the development of regulatory guidelines for nearly 50 agencies regulating ‘basic sanitation’ services " (states, inter-municipalities and municipalities) and to monitor compliance with the objectives set by law.

The challenge in Brazil, as in many countries, is to implement sanitation policies in line with basin-wide strategies (IWRM). For the record, in France, the fees collected by the water agencies through the payment of water bills by users, used to finance investments in sanitation.

In Brazil, it is essential that interventions at both the large and small water cycle levels are implemented in a complementary manner, so that Brazil can achieve the target of 99% access to drinking water and 90% access to sanitation services by 2033, as stipulated by Law No. 14,026, given that more than 49 million people did not have adequate access to these services in 2022.

The objective of this training is therefore to contribute to strengthening the governance of basin organisations and agencies responsible for regulating water and sanitation services.

On the one hand, it aims to provide general skills in IWRM to specialists in the regulation of water and sanitation services and, on the other hand, to provide water agency managers with an overview of the sectoral challenges of sanitation. The objective is therefore twofold and complementary.

The objective is therefore twofold and complementary, and the target audiences varied: regulators, lawyers, business leaders, contract managers, compliance officers, students, academics, consultants, civil servants, professionals in the sector and anyone else interested in these issues.

The teaching team, composed of four individuals with complementary profiles and professional backgrounds, has chosen to structure the training programme into six modules:

• MODULE 1: Institutional organisation for integrated water resources management (IWRM) and the provision of sanitation services.
• MODULE 2: Diagnosis of river basins and monitoring of the environmental impacts of sanitation services.
• MODULE 3: Planning for integrated water resources management (IWRM) and sanitation programmes.
• MODULE 4: Financing integrated water resources management (IWRM) and sanitation programmes.
• MODULE 5: Structuring and managing public-private partnership (PPP) contracts for sanitation services.
• MODULE 6: Case study focusing on the clean-up of the Seine in Paris.

The trainers favoured a combination of lectures and interactive workshops.

Each module will be organised in four stages: a lecture, a case study, a discussion and experience-sharing session, followed by a conclusion phase.

This method will enable participants to compare the lessons learned from the French experience with the issues and challenges they face in carrying out their duties.

The theoretical concepts and case studies will highlight the French experience and projects coordinated or technically supported by OiEau, particularly in the Piracicaba Capivari and Jundiai (PCJ) basins and the Paraibo do Sul and Guandu basins, which supply water to the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Examples include the ‘InterAgences’ technical cooperation project for the integrated management of various Brazilian river basins and bays; the ‘MARU’ project aimed at strengthening the monitoring and evaluation of urban sanitation, particularly with the use of satellite technology; and the ‘PPP Governance’ project supporting the development of these partnerships at the level of Brazilian municipalities in the areas of water, sanitation, waste management and public lighting.

This training programme could be replicated in other regions of Brazil and adapted to other areas such as water supply, waste and drainage management, and rainwater management, for example.

Specific training is also being considered on the use of satellite tools for quantitative water resource management (spatial hydrology) and surface water quality monitoring.