SITUATIONAL PANORAMA OF PLANES MUNICIPAL SANITATION IN COUNTIES OF RIO GRANDE DO NORTE
Sanitation. Municipal plan of sanitation. Sanitation diagnostic. PMSB. Planning public policies.
Planning in the sanitation sector is a real need in the counties in order that occur the development of the population's quality of life since there is a great connection between sanitation and public health. The Law 11.445 of 2007 in its guidelines for basic sanitation in the national scenario requires the establishment of the Municipal Plan of Sanitation (PMSB) of counties with this being condition for contract validation with sanitation service providers and to receive federal funds for the sector. Given the worrying situation found in the counties of Rio Grande do Norte, where only about 5% had completed their PMSB in 2010, it is necessary to know the current situation and find out the reasons that led to this large deficit in the planning. Therefore, this study aimed to diagnose the PMSB situation in all counties in the state through questionnaire answered online (Google Forms) and by telephone seeking to know about the progress of the elaboration of their respective PMSB and about the difficulties faced during the process. To check the consistency of the data and fill the gap left by the lack of information from some counties we used secondary data obtained from the Company of Water and Sewers of Rio Grande do Norte and from “Overview of the situation of Municipal Sanitation Planning in Brazil” built by Ministry of Cities. The results showed an expected and still worrying scenario: about 23.5% of the counties have PMSB and 24.2% are in the elaboration process. The main difficulties perceived by counties are the lack of financial resources and lack of qualified professionals in the own city, however, the political will is also a difficulty, though clearly not perceived by them.