This article seeks to analyse the creation of the water and sewerage systems in the city of São Paulo in the last decade of the 19th Century. The provincial government contracted a private company, the Companhia Cantareira & Esgotos, for the construction of the new water supply system, its execution and administration. Unable to fulfil its part in the contract, the company loses the rights to the services, and is taken over by the State, becoming the "Water and Sewerage Technical Department [Repartição Técnica de Águas e Esgotos]". Therefore, the State moves from the promotion to the production of this infrastructure in São Paulo.
Infrastructure; Urbanization; Sanitation; Cantareira Company; São Paulo
