Conflicts surrounding the “natural antidote against COVID-19”: Brazil sanitation governance in action

Abstract As the COVID-19 pandemic sprawled across every continent, ‘hand-washing’ became the official guideline to prevent contagion. In this scenario, governmental and non-governmental actors mobilised to promote the provision of water supply and customer services to the largest number of people. With the imposed isolation, virtual events became the centre of the political debate, bringing to light strategies and challenges to guarantee basic needs, debated within the scope of the federal legislative and executive branches and civil society. The purpose of this article is to explore the discourses produced and the interventions proposed between April and May 2020. In the light of social studies of science and technology and discussions regarding the enactment and production of the state, mapped through the actions of key actors, this ethnography enables us to outline the conflicts of sanitation governance in Brazil.


Introduction
Emma Crewe (2021) argues that although social anthropologists have studied political institutions, politicians and other leaders, they have rarely ventured into the centres of power.In the case of Brazil, these centres of power are organised in the form of institutions of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, at the federal, state and municipal levels.There are several institutions that play a fundamental role in the conduct of democracy and in the realisation of human and constitutional rights.Shedding light on these centres of power through the particular filter of anthropology is fundamental, particularly in the current situation facing Brazil.
The country has been dealing with a serious political, economic and institutional crisis since 2014, period of the conflicting impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff.Within the scope of the National Congress, power struggles became visibly more polarised, with impacts on the governance of basic services.The election of President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 brought even greater instability to the political scene.The dismantling of public institutions led by the president's far-right government intensified the impacts on democratic processes and the increasing social inequality.It was within this scenario that the country was traversed by the COVID-19 pandemic.Some facts recorded in a period of 30 days after the first confirmed case in Brazil:

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On March 24, 2020, the non-governmental organisation Habitat para a Humanidade Brasil [Habitat for Humanity Brazil] and over 60 entities and networks active in the major themes of housing and public health in Brazil filed a letter with the Ministério Público Federal [Federal Public Prosecutor's Office] reinforcing the need for states and municipalities to ensure the supply of water that focused on favelas, peripheries and vulnerable groups, 'with the aim of adequately supporting this significant part of the Brazilian population' (Habitat, 2020).(MPRJ, 2020) affirmed that guaranteeing the supply of potable water and the provision of adequate sanitation conditions 'are essential factors for the safety and protection of the health of the population, especially during outbreaks of infectious diseases'.
Human rights recognised by the United Nations, such as the right to water and sanitation, and constitutional rights, specifically public health and a balanced environment, gained the spotlight as 'hand-washing' became an imperative.Given the challenges posed by the pandemic, the question emerged: how to overcome the historical and unequal deficit of water supply in the short term?And following this, it became fundamental to question: what paths had been proposed by public institutions to guarantee access to water for populations in vulnerable situations?What were the positions of strategic actors in basic sanitation governance vis-à-vis international and local demands?These are some of the questions that we address herein.
The commitment is analytical, descriptive, and imminently political, corroborating the understanding that 'a healthy democracy needs researchers to take a close look at the claims, relationships and performances of politicians' (Crewe, 2021: 21-22), in order to indicate tools for improving social control of public policies, as well as to assist in proposing ways to strengthen institutions.Venturing on the potential of the ethnographic method and approach, on the principle that combines the articulation between native theory and accumulated anthropological theory -or rather, more specifically, theories concerning the state and public policies -the purpose is to draw on ethnographic data produced from of meetings articulated by governmental and nongovernmental actors to analyse the state in action.
Our reflections are organised into five sections.In addition to this introduction, the article comprises Section 2 'Ethnographic method and virtual ethnography', in which we detail the stages of identifying and analysing the virtual events, as well as characterising the mapped network of actors.Section 3 'Consensus?', is dedicated to characterising the confluence of positions on the 'urgency' of meeting the demand for water supply.Section 4 'Fixes and conflicts' provides a deeper analysis of the results of the virtual ethnographic study, with the identification of three types of necessary fixes in water supply infrastructure indicated by different interlocutors: material, socioeconomic and political-institutional.The positions of civil society representatives reveal the interconnection of these fixes.Finally, the importance of ethnographic studies to monitor the performance of competent government actors in ensuring basic needs, both during and after the pandemic, together with the social control of public policies, is reinforced.

Section 2: Ethnographic method and virtual ethnography
We begin with discussions undertaken by Mariza Peirano (2000) concerning Brazilian ethnographic production and its specificities regarding contextualised otherness.Peirano makes it evident that Brazilian anthropology is historically accustomed to 'reduced alterities', that is, even when investigating the cultures of Indigenous nations, and 'others' considered to be radical alterities (from the perspective of European anthropology), the distance -geographical, or even linguistic, since some peoples knew or were able to communicate in Portuguese -is closer than those instituted in colonial enterprises.
We suggest that the relationship of alterity was traversed by the proximity and engagement of the first author with the field of investigation, given that she is an environmental engineer and proposes an interdisciplinary approach that is simultaneously investigative, analytical, and capable of generating interventions.As discussed by Nader (1972), the stimulating effect of indignation has resulted in research and university extension projects in the field of environmental engineering since 2013, a period in which the first author began to question the distance between classroom theory and the reality of rural areas: 'What can explain the fact that a family, 20 km [12.4 mi] from the university that is a national reference in the research and teaching of hydraulics and sanitation [University of São Paulo], lives without a bathroom and with an intermittent supply of water?' (Fantin et al., 2021: 57).
After seven years of work on the subject, her indignation at the invisibility of Brazil's social and territorial diversity in infrastructure projects and public sanitation policies, as well as in teaching and research actions by large universities, was mitigated by the rapid mobilisation of the sanitation sector when faced with the COVID-19 pandemic.Actions being outlined for populations and areas that were excluded from access to water supply services emerged as 'urgent' problems -albeit old and structural.The expectation that the moment Brazilians were facing could be one 'freio de arrumação'3 -like a brake on a moving bus that puts everyone and everything in its place -ended up remodelling indignation to a feeling of distrustful hope in the investigation.
We undertook the empirical case explored here as an example of anthropology that is conducted 'close to home (at home)', as suggested by Peirano, taking this proximity to home as familiarity with the technical discussions and engagement with the networks that are focused on the investigation.And it is precisely because of this proximity, and based on the assumption that the observer is an integral part of the process of knowledge and discovery, that the methodological device of otherness is activated in the sense of finding the familiar strange, a practice fundamental to doing anthropology.
In this sense, we corroborate Peirano's suggestion (2000) that, in anthropology, there are no social facts, but rather 'ethnographic facts', emphasising that there is always a process of selection in that observed and in the report's interpretations.Thus, unfamiliarity, that is, part of the methodological device committed to producing a distancing in relation to the supposedly familiar, becomes not only the way in which the confrontation between different theories transpires, but also the means of self-reflection.
The ethnographic enterprise developed here is located in the field of social studies of science and technology4 , to the extent that it examines the institutions we understand to be central to the shaping and maintenance of modernity.We qualify such studies as those committed to revealing unsuspected connections between power and knowledge (including here forms of policies and interventions based on scientific expertise), producing new perspectives on science, politics and society.As Isabelle Stengers (2002: 11) suggests, this is an approach that confronts the audacity of studying science and its interventions in the manner of a social project 'neither more detached from the concerns of the world, nor more universal or rational than any other'.
In a scenario in which scientists claim to speak for nature and democratic governments speak for the needs of the people, Sheila Jasanoff suggests that a foundational question concerning representation emerges: how are the few authorised to speak for the many?
We also dialogue with works on the state in its practical dimension.In the making of the state, considering dynamic and procedural processes as the object of description and analysis, operating ethnographically in order to advance in the face of perspectives that are limited to the prescriptions inscribed in the law, 'we want to value the dimensions of process, flow, and performance, not only those apprehensible through the analysis of great rituals and events, but also their daily updating' (Lima, 2012: 561).Therefore, as argued by Teixeira et al. (2019: 11), this concerns researching the 'making of a state', by considering the discourses of state agents as native, attentive not to the transcendence of their statements, but to the practice and particular construction, providing this abstraction with specific, local, historical bodies and meanings.
Responding to the demand for some urgency in a reinvention of anthropology and its commitment to examine power (Nader, 1972), the commitment here is to return to those 'at the top', through a democratic commitment to evaluate and enable transformations in the quality of life of citizens affected by the policies and agents that shape and control institutional structures5 .According to Nader, it is pertinent that a reinvented anthropology study powerful institutions and bureaucratic organisations, given that they affect the lives of the people that anthropologists have traditionally studied around the world.
In the movement to pry 'behind the facelessness of a bureaucratic society' (Nader, 1972), we highlight that the ethnography that underlies the reflections presented here was conducted virtually, which implies specificities in the way our interactions were developed.Our analysis was established through the narrow screen of our computers, in the safety of our private environments in times of pandemic6 .
Events on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Zoom and Eventials enabled different actors to meet with the aim of raising topics related to fulfilling basic needs.This article presents the results of the ethnography conducted in April and May 2020.Eight online events were selected as the focus of this study, which were determined by the criteria of the relevance of the actors present and that provided analyses of the centres of power: representatives of regulatory agencies, public companies supplying water services, the national legislative and executive branches, together with representatives of social movements and associations.
As a result of the analyses, institutional-legal conflicts and epistemological conflicts were discussed in the spheres of decision-making, regarding the manner of solving 'sanitation' problems.Despite the consensus that water supply is fundamental, the causes for the absence of this public service, and the means to ensure its full guarantee, were shown to diverge among the groups of actors analysed.

Virtual ethnography
(…) ethnography is not just data collection and interpretation, it involves writing about people evocatively and with imagination.The people are the focus because anthropology tends to be empirical, starting with guesses about what is going on, proceeding to people's everyday experiences, meaning-making and relationships, and building up more certain theory from the bottom upwards.(Crewe, 2021: 10-11) Segata and Rifiotis (2016: 9-10) argue that studies in the 'field of cyberculture' have gained prominence in Brazil over the last 20 years.E-mails, chats, blogs, bank transactions, electronic games, applications and social networks are some of the examples raised by the authors who were and continue to be mobilised by disciplines that include sociology, communication, philosophy, anthropology and the arts: 'Not for less, this field has been dynamic, challenging, controversial and has mobilised intense debates in events and publications.The authors argue in defence of ethnography as the 'master key' of research in this field, with 'Internet Ethnography', 'Virtual Ethnography', 'Online Ethnography' and/or 'Netnography' already propounded as methods in different research works (Beaulieu, 2004;Hine, 2011;Martinhago, 2018).
Analysing the debates surrounding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a community on the social network Facebook, Fernanda Martinhago (2018, p. 3331) points out that 'the virtual world has provided a transformation in the research context, such that ethnographers can free themselves from "place" through the Internet'.Hine (2011, p. 3) emphasises this transformation and argues that the Internet 'offers rich data for almost any social researcher', since many aspects of everyday life are reflected 'somewhere online'.The author argues that using data 'found' on the Internet enables the exploration of 'people's understanding of a topic or cultural phenomenon'.
For this empirical study, a 'specific place' 7 was not previously selected.Given that the events took place in different places and mobilised different actors, we opted to follow the events instead of remaining on one platform.on the impacts of COVID-19].Amidst a veritable 'explosion' of announcements, with an average of three per week, criteria were created to elect the events in which participation could occur in 'real time' -with the aim of interacting in the chats and possibly presenting questions to the speakers -and those saved to watch later.For both formats, the following criteria were applied: open events (available on public platforms, without admission fees or education specifications for registration) and with the presence of representatives of governmental and non-governmental actors strategic for the debate.Among these events, eight were selected for subsequent presentation of the results and discussion.
Table 1 presents the events selected, including the respective dates, platforms, forms of access, and views, together with who began the initiative and who the participating actors were.Over a period of 30 days (April 16 to May 19), we navigated through three different platforms: YouTube, Zoom and Eventials9 .Despite these different platforms, the dynamics of the events followed very similar protocols, with around 50 to 60 minutes of debate between the invited actors, succeed by a period reserved for questions from the participants.All platforms enabled interaction through chat, where in addition to asking questions directed at the speakers, participants talked to each other.This interactive space was only included in the analysis of the events monitored in 'real time', given that the availability of the recording did not include a 'replay of the chat'.The recording, on the other hand, only enabled analysis of the questions that were answered by the guest actors via the organisation's mediation.
Regarding the network of actors mapped, we categorised them into governmental and non-governmental actors.Governmental actors from the federal legislative branch stand out, in particular federal representatives: Geninho Juliani (DEM/SP), Joenia Wapichana (REDE/RR), Bira do Pindaré (PSB/MA) and Rodrigo Agostinho (PSB/SP).The performance of male and female representatives, based on their individual trajectory and the analysis of events, enabled us to determine the mobilisation of two central agendas: approval of the New Legal Sanitation Framework within the scope of the lower house, and the defence of traditional peoples and communities in the face of COVID-19.
On one side stands Geninho Juliano (DEM/SP), rapporteur for the new regulatory sanitation framework, who credits state-owned companies with most of the basic sanitation problems in Brazil and defends opening up the market.His arguments revolve around greater legal certainty for private companies to participate in providing the service, and he is seen as a 'Hercules' by his allies in academia and the private sector -an expression used throughout Event 1.On the other, Joenia Wapichana (REDE/RR), the first Indigenous woman elected as a federal representative, broadens the debate by turning to structural causes for the non-guarantee of basic needs, especially in the case of Indigenous peoples.Source: Elaborated by the authors based on the research, originally presented in Ramos (2021: 67 & 68).
Throughout the analysis, two large debate blocs emerged.Seeing the scenario of a health crisis and an economic crisis, actors in the sanitation sector (service providers and regulators) emphasised the negative impacts of COVID-19 both in terms of regulation and provision.It is important to underline that the actors in the sector dialogued with their allies in academia and the legislature, as is evident in the configuration of the actors invited to Events 1 to 6.
As observed at the event organised by the Brazilian Association of Regulatory Agencies (ABAR), Mario Augusto Parente argued that the pandemic is in itself a 'tragedy' for the sector, where 'the users have no money and suppliers are asking for tariff readjustments' (Economic-Tariff Coordinator of the Regulatory Agency of Public Services of Ceará, Event 6).Linking the health crisis with the economic crisis, the actor signalled the measures being adopted in the case of households already connected to the supply networks.In particular, to guarantee access to water for low-income users -in the category of social residential/social tariff usage -the exemption of billing, guaranteeing supply in cases of non-payment, and the suspension of fines and interests for late payments were the measures highlighted by the actor.According to him, the immediate consequences of these actions 'are cutting into the cash flow of these companies.
Along similar lines, Luciana Figueiras, a speaker at the event organised by the Brazilian Association of Environmental and Sanitary Engineering, pointed out that the economic effects of the pandemic can be observed in the current concession contracts: 'The public and private concession contracts are suffering an imbalance given the scenario of public calamity' (CEO at Tomorrow Gestão [Tomorrow Management], Event 5).
On different platforms, however, the narratives of the actors of Events 5 and 6 were aligning.Luciana Figueiras, Rogel Martins Barbosa, Rodrigo Hosken, Cássio Leandro and Mario Augusto elucidated the connection between the economic crisis and the health crisis and justified joint efforts to 'minimise the economic losses experienced by this sector' (Mario Augusto, Event 5).
In terms of provision, a convergence of narratives was also observed.The Vice-President of BRK Ambiental As Crewe (2021: 14 -15) suggests, if we only concentrate on individuals who make policy and do not look at the processes -the relationships and communication between them -we may attain an impoverished analysis.
Vibrant v.20 Thus, it is essential to underline the connections between the narratives presented by actors representing the private sector (BRK and ABCON) and the argument of Martha Seillier, Special Secretary of the Investment Partnerships Programme of the Ministry of the Economy12 , in an event held four days later: I asked to bring up this agenda for core reforms, which was what I had worked on, and I said 'Minister, it's so complex and the legal framework for this sector, which dates back to 2007, fell far short of addressing these federative complexities and the reality that we live today, which is a wholly different fiscal reality from 2007, and which I think that if we don't consider real reform for basic sanitation, reviewing its legal framework, we won't move forward'.Because to attract private investment to this sector, you need to have legal certainty, you need to have regulatory stability, you need to have a series of things that this sector doesn't have, and it's no wonder that there is only a 6% share of private investment.(Martha Seillier, Event 3) Martha Seillier was the only representative of the federal executive branch mapped in the events analysed.
She is an economist who served in the Civil House during the Michel Temer administration, and became responsible for coordinating the Federal Privatisation Programme under the influence of then-president Jair Bolsonaro himself13 .
From April 16 to May 13, therefore, the relationships of the actors of Events 1 to 6 -shown in Table 1 above -were becoming visible, together with their intentions.The economic impacts and regulatory challenges emphasised by service operators and regulators were the same aspects mobilised by the federal government's representative.These arguments are the result of a prior mobilisation, marked by the approval of the new legal framework for basic sanitation in the lower house in December 2019 14 .In June 2020, at the height of the first wave of COVID-19 and about two months after the discourses described above, the new framework -Bill 4,162/2019 -was approved in the upper house15 .On July 15 the same year, the president signed the bill into law16 .
As a complement to Table 1, Figure 1 illustrates the relationships between these individuals and institutions: the relationships between the private sector (consultancies, law firms and private sanitation companies), civil associations and the federal executive and legislative branches within the scope of Events 1 and 3; between social movements, universities and the federal legislative branch within the scope of Event 7; between the private sector and civil associations within the scope of Event 5; and between civil associations, universities and social movements within the scope of Event 8.
Figure 1 also illustrates the intense participation of non-governmental actors.In this context, it is essential to emphasise that many participatory spaces have been closed and that the proliferation of virtual forums, often independent of the relevant institutions for the governance of public services, shows the vitality of civil society and a capacity for self-organisation.A sign that citizenship resists, that social movements are alive.
Closely analysing this resistance is also fundamental to democracy.Even though the centres of power do not mirror Brazilian diversity in political positions, social movements and associations representing civil society traverse public institutions with diverse mobilisations and articulations, as emphasised in the speech of a CONAQ leader: 'We have been working together with the Quilombola Parliamentary Caucus, with Congress (...) to try to present our demands, also in partnership with Indigenous peoples, with the Indigenous Parliamentary Caucus' (Biko Rodrigues, Event 7).
Far from the scientific controversies associated with possible treatments for the disease, like those observed for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which mobilised world leaders and the President of the Republic, no disputes were identified concerning the use of water as a preventive measure.The statements in agreement with this measure were dominant in the narratives analysed, and expressive in the opening of the events: Good afternoon, everyone, (...) Sanitation is on the agenda of the day, though not for the first time, it is more important right now.In fact, it is frightening to say that 3 billion people in the world do not have soap and water (...) this means that 40% of the entire world population does not have water (...) And today (...) among many uncertainties, there is no doubt that washing your hands is fundamental.(Opening speech by Charles Schramm, executive manager of FGV Projetos, Event 1) This was an event that paid attention to local difficulties marked by the pandemic; not merely generic concerns regarding the calamity of the lack of water in a broad sense, but also the social problems that preceded and likely survived the health crisis.However, we see that world data and the chronic structural situation are used in this speech to assert the seriousness of the problem.Augusto Dal Pozzo, president of the Instituto Brasileiro de Estudos Jurídicos da Infraestrutura (IBEJI) [Brazilian Institute of Legal Infrastructure Studies], reiterated Schramm's statement at the same event: What's funnier is that despite this many people who have no water, this ends up being the very natural antidote against COVID, right?Because the simple act of washing your hands with soap and water is exactly the initial antidote that can fight this very serious problem that we're living here with COVID-19.(Augusto Dal Pozzo, Event 1; emphasis added) If there is an urgent demand, the discourse of the two interlocutors enables us to consider that because these problems occurred and were even worse prior to the pandemic, the solution to an apparently simple problem, such as washing your hands, is a challenge of great magnitude, given that a representative percentage of the population does not have access to these services.Giuliana Moreira, Event 2 mediator, also began her speech in this regard: 'We know that one of the fundamental preventive measures for COVID-19 is hand hygiene, which, of course, can only be achieved through access to clean water' (Global Compact Network Brazil Advisor, Event 2).
Initiating the analysis of these discourses by mobilising authors from the field of social studies of science and technology is justified by the possibility of disputing concepts like 'infrastructure' and 'technology', often crystallised as neutral concepts in the fields of engineering and economics.The debate on infrastructure in the works of Howe et al. (2016) and Star (1999), the discussion on technological determinism by Pfaffenberger (1988) and De Laet and Mol (2000), together with Haraway's (1988) defence of localised knowledge, allow us to weave such analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective.Until one day, the minister met with the chief secretaries in this area and said that the president was extremely bothered by the basic sanitation numbers (...) always returning the agenda to how shameful the basic sanitation numbers were (...) medieval numbers on basic sanitation, right?(...) and the traditional answer has always been 'ah, this is the competence of the municipalities, the states have their own state companies, the [federal government] basically provides funding' (...) it was a tragic story, which may get worse, this was the diagnosis (...) so the minister at the time asked us to try to assess how the federal government could alter this reality (...) basically considering how to attract private investment into the basic sanitation sector.(Martha Seillier, Event 3) From this perspective, the pandemic impacts only one aspect of the infrastructure and part of the sector's governance, accelerating reforms within the scope of provision and regulation.Representatives of actors from public and private companies, regulatory agencies, civil associations in the sector and the federal legislative branch all pointed to regulatory measures, tariff adjustments and increased private investments in the sector, as well as to exceptional measures of tariff gratuity and the suspension of cuts in water supply 'while the pandemic lasts' (Events 1 to 6) -focusing on the material dimension of water supply infrastructure.
From another perspective, representatives of social movements, non-governmental organisations and public universities raised other elements, such as territorial dynamics, conflicts in rural areas, food insecurity, the historical invisibility of peoples and traditional communities, and the omissions of the state -signalling the social and political-institutional dimensions of infrastructure.

Section 4: Fixes and conflicts
In Pfaffenberger's (1988) approach, the solutions proposed in the material dimension can be read as 'technical fixes'.These fixes, implemented in a short period of time by engineers, lawyers and economists, promised the delivery of 'infrastructure' in a pandemic scenario.However, this interpretation through 'mundane mechanisms' (Howe et al., 2016) produces technical fixes that are exclusionary and temporary.The misgivings of the participants in the chats following the debate between the speakers reinforces this argument: 'how are the strategies in terms of land regularisation in these areas going, so that these measures are permanent, and not just in times of coronavirus?' (Question raised in the chat, Event 2), and 'What are SABESP's initiatives to make drinking water available for homeless people?For example, in Cracolândia' (Question raised in the chat, Event 2).
Presented as 'universal' fixes (Law, 2011), they only fit in realities that are more accustomed to water supply networks, such as densely populated regions.Thus, only regularised households -in terms of registration and documentation, and in terms of land ownership -and those already included in these networks can benefit from such measures.When asked about how companies and regulatory agencies are mapping groups that are in a vulnerable situation, Mario Augusto replied that 'in practice… in practice, we are assuming information from records that already existed17 .We had no previous quantification or validation work' (Event 6).Households in rural areas with territorial occupation and use specificities, such as traditionally occupied territories, which historically have the greatest deficit in relation to adequate attendance by basic sanitation services (Brasil 2019;Guimarães, 2015) were therefore not entitled to the tariff and regulatory fixes.Neither were homeless people or those who do not have access to decent housing.
Thus, when Paulo Massato, metropolitan director of the largest basic sanitation company in the country, ends his presentation by saying that 'these basic sanitation actions need to be intensified so that this lower income population has at least the benefit of basic sanitation infrastructure' (Paulo Massato, Metropolitan Director of SABESP, Event 4; emphasis added), what is actually being proposed?If, on the one hand, Paulo Massato described the actions of donating water tanks to peripheral urban areas, Benedito Braga, president of the same company, detailed other measures adopted for the 'poorer population': What then is our company doing at this very complicated time?We are collaborating with the population suffering the most, with the poorest population of our consumers.The first measure we took was that in the next three months, people who are on the social tariff and in favelas, they will not need to pay for water, they will receive water for free, right?(...) we had to have the approval of our Board of Directors, because this obviously involved significant costs on the part of the company (...), but the company understood that the poorest people would be the most impacted.Because this here not just a health crisis, it's an economic crisis, right?(Benedito Braga, President of SABESP, Event 2) The emergency measures put in place by the actor to guarantee continued provision for the 'poorest' users, were also adopted by the largest state companies in Brazil in terms of service coverage, such as Companhia de for the demands of Quilombolas, of Indigenous peoples and of traditional communities and also regarding the murders.It's been four days since we lost a Quilombola leader who was murdered in Bahia.On the issue of evictions, in the middle of a pandemic, the Brazilian state, the Brazilian Justice [system] signs an eviction order for the Quilombolas of Alcântara, on the Alcântara Space Base (...) Among several other cases of conflicts that we have followed.
(Biko Rodrigues, CONAQ representative, Event 7; emphasis added) Based on our analysis of Events 7 and 8, what emerges is an expansion of the interpretation of the emergency situation in which representatives of social movements claim historically violated rights, such as access to public health, a balanced environment, territorial and cultural rights.In these events, the actors include in their claims for 'basic sanitation infrastructure' the recognition and demarcation of land, actions on food security, the prohibition of eviction orders, the fight against conflicts and murders in rural areas and, emphatically, the actuation of public institutions in their territories.
From this we can suggest that there are three 'levels' of fixes presented in the events: • Material fixes: the distribution of water tanks, water delivery in tanker trucks, hand sanitiser, and basic food baskets, • Socioeconomic fixes: invoice exemption, guarantee of supply in cases of non-payment, the suspension of fines and interest for late payment, and the readjustment of contracts, • Political-institutional fixes: the participation of the private sector in the sanitation sector at the national level and approval of the new legal framework in the Senate; the recognition of territories and land deeds; public food security policies; and the actuation of public institutions in their constitutional and legislative competences.
The solutions proposed by the president of SABESP -and by BRK and ABCON -cover two of these dimensions (material and socioeconomic), and hint at the political-institutional dimension -as observed in the intentionality of approving the new framework in the dialogues of Events 1 and 2. By considering that land titling, for example, does not form part of the issue of water and sewage distribution implies that part of the population will continue to be excluded from the provision of these services, which may mean that such claims were silenced or ignored by the competent actors.At Event 4, Paulo Massato answered a question 'from the people of Rio de Janeiro' concerning the legal obstacles to providing services in irregular areas.SABESP's Metropolitan Director pointed out that 'we have always had concerns about working with so-called irregular areas and actions involving public ministries, and potential actions against the company' (Event 4).He concluded that, for these cases, 'joint actions with municipal governments are necessary to seek land regularisation'.
The alternatives put forward throughout Events 2 and 4 for realities that circumvent urban planning and that lack housing structures, therefore, were reduced to the delivery of 'hygiene kits' -soap and hand sanitiser -, and efforts to mobilise water delivery in tanker trucks.While fundamental, these efforts erase the obligation to ensure the continued provision of such services -no intermittent service or prolonged rationing, and proper potability standards -as well as erasing the need to work with public policies on urban, rural and regional development, housing, combating poverty, and promoting health, thus considered local specificities (Brasil 2007;2019).
Moreover, the fact that the strategies are presented in terms of 'urgency' and 'exceptionality' -terms used recurrently -is yet another aggravating factor.The very demands of the judiciary issue directives for actions to be adopted 'during the period of the novel coronavirus pandemic' (MPSP 2020: 25) or until we return to a 'scenario of normality' (MPRJ 2020: 28).On the one hand, this means the urgency is justified by the crisis situation, but on the other, it can be strategically used to divert attention from definitive and structural decisions.
Within this problematic, a question posed in the Event 5 chat provocatively questions the speaker: 'How does the law interpret an emergency situation?In the scenario of subnormal conglomerates and 'irregular' territories (favelas, Quilombos, Indigenous lands), given the lack of sanitation, the public health situation has been an emergency for centuries'.The debate surrounding the emergency situation that 'has been going on for years' takes on clearer contours through the reports of non-governmental actors representing social movements, such as the Virtual Meeting of the Indigenous, Quilombola, Environmentalist Caucuses and the Amazon Forum (Event 7).
Biko Rodrigues, representative of the National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (CONAQ), begins his speech by emphasising the centuries of invisibility of traditional peoples and communities under the Brazilian state: This moment we are going through is aggravating, it becomes even more aggravating due to a whole process, you know, a process of these most vulnerable segments not having access to public policies: Indigenous peoples, Quilombola communities, traditional peoples and communities.And this is getting even worse due to Lara Ramos; Marisol Marini; Rosana Corazza Vibrant v.20 The answer to the question -how can we overcome this historical deficit or how do we guarantee the fulfilment of basic needs in the current political conjuncture?-can be reinforced by a stratum on how to monitor the fulfilment of basic needs in the current political conjuncture.Nader (1972: 294) reminds us that citizens need to have access to information and knowledge concerning the main institutions, government or otherwise, that affect their lives.The ethnographic commitment of Brazilian researchers has enabled and continues to enable the description, analysis and monitoring of public institutions (Teixeira et al, 2019).'It is in the search for ways out and to escape from the plot that entangles us in the current historical moment that it is necessary to continue, to expand and to probe deeper (...) A lot of work is done, and much more is left to do' (Lima and Facina, 2019: 474).As Biko Rodrigues concludes: 'it's important that we're always united, because what lies ahead, the post-pandemic, is going to cause even more difficulties for our people' (CONAQ Representative, Event 7).

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On March 25, 2020, the Defensoria Pública [Public Defender's Office] of the State of São Paulo recommended the adoption of measures by the Department of Water and Sewage of the town of Valinhos, with a view to ensuring the continuity of water supplies to families living in the 'Marielle Vive' Rural Camp, temporarily prohibiting any suspension of this 'essential public service' (DPESP, 2020; emphasis added).•On March 27, 2020, federal representative Rosa Neide (PT/MT) drafted Bill no.1142/2020 in the Câmara dos Deputados [Brazilian House of Representatives], which provided for 'very urgent measures to support traditional peoples and communities 1 due to the novel coronavirus'.• On April 13, 2020, the Ministério Público Federal [Federal Public Prosecutor's Office], through the 6 th Office of Coordination and Review -Indigenous Populations and Traditional Communities -published new guidelines on action for the Ministério da Cidadania [Ministry of Citizenship] 'while the novel coronavirus pandemic lasts', in order to guarantee access to basic health services and food security for vulnerable populations (MPF, 2020).• Also in April, the Ministério Público do Estado de São Paulo and the Ministério Público do Estado de Rio de Janeiro [State Public Prosecutors' Offices] demanded measures from the state-owned sanitation companies to guarantee the supply of water to all favelas and subnormal agglomerations 2 .The Ação Civil Pública com Pedido de Tutela de Urgência [Public Civil Action with Request for Urgent Tutelage]

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the largest private company in Brazil -, the Executive Director of the Brazilian Association of Private Concessionaires of Public Water and Sewage Services (ABCON), and the President and Metropolitan Director of the Companhia Estadual de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo (SABESP) [Basic Sanitation Company of the State of São Paulo] -considered one of the largest sanitation companies in the world in terms of population served -all touched on similar points, emphasising the economic impacts, the challenges of maintaining continued provision and regulatory challenges.If I could choose one [challenge] I would say that it is a more stable regulation, a better understanding of the rules, the safety of the investor in knowing the rules and knowing what they are getting into (...) I will give an example here of the COVID situation (...) We had around 180 acts, decrees, rules, that touched on the operation in various ways (...) this excessive decentralisation allows for different acts (...) there are multiple people thinking in different ways each with their respective interests, and from the investor's point of view, you are left without the necessary legal certainty of knowing what the rules are beforehand and being able to invest.(Daniela Mattos, Vice-President of Corporate Affairs and Regulation at BKR Ambiental, Event 1)

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Map of the actors identified in the events analysed Is this an emergency?It is.When it's been going on for years, it is theoretically no longer an emergency, because you manage to live with it […] In truth, we can live without sanitation, isn't that right?It's what we're living through.(PhD in Waste and founding partner of Martins Barbosa Advogados (Law Firm), Event 5).

Table 1 .
Within the scope of the executive branch, the participation of the special secretary for Programas de Parcerias de Investimentos do Ministério da Economia [Investment Partnership Programmes of the Ministry of the Economy] The intense participation of non-governmental actors also also attract attention.Among actors representing the sanitation sector, associations like the Brazilian Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (ABES), the Associação Brasileira de Agências de Regulação (ABAR) [Brazilian Association of Regulatory Agencies], Associação Brasileira das Concessionárias Privadas de Serviços Públicos de Água e Esgoto (ABCON) [Private Concessionaires of Public Water and Sewage Services] and the Associação Brasileira das Empresas Estaduais de Saneamento (AESBE) [Brazilian Association of State Sanitation Companies] organised and participated in several events during this period.Some of these organisations and civil associations in the sanitation sector, like the ABES, AESBE and ABCON, should be briefly characterised.The ABES has 55 years of experience and its associative body unites around 10,000 professionals from the sector, particularly sanitation, environmental and civil engineers.The AESBE has 37 years of experience and represents the basic sanitation companies of each state.ABCON, in turn, has 25 years of experience and unites private companies that provide these services, representing the private sector together with public authorities and organised civil society.Within the scope of social movements active in Indigenous and Quilombola territories, the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (APIB) [Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil] and the Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (CONAQ) [National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities] should be highlighted.The APIB was created by the Indigenous movement in 2005, bringing together regional Indigenous organisations from across the country.TheIndigenous movement articulated by APIB acts on several fronts, including Indigenous legislation, Indigenous health, Indigenous education, the management of territories and sustainability, and social participation.Virtual events selected for analysis and discussion(April and May 2020) The representative, together with Bira do Pindaré (PSB/MA) and Rodrigo Agostinho (PSB/SP), participated in Event 7 with allies from civil society and academia.CONAQ , in turn, was created in 1995 with the aim of mobilising Quilombola communities from various states in the struggle to guarantee the collective use of their territories.Lara Ramos; Marisol Marini; Rosana Corazza Vibrant v.20 The evidence is presented in the argument of Martha Seillier, Special Secretary of the Investment Partnerships Programme of the Ministry of the Economy.The secretary narrates that she received an invitation from the Casa Civil [Executive Office of the President (US) / Prime Minister's Office (UK)] to help coordinate major reforms -fiscal, social security, labour and taxation -and later was included in the sanitation working group.The solution they advocated is directly linked to attracting private investment: Saneamento de Minas Gerias (COPASA) [Water Supply Company of the State of Minas Gerais] and Empresa Baianade Águas e Saneamento (EMBASA) [Water Services Company of the State of Bahia].Free service seems to be a minimum condition for offering what was understood to be an essential service when facing a health crisis, which is necessary when facing a crisis that is also financial.However, the immediate solution is insufficient to address the problems raised by other actors, as observed in Event 7: At this time, we have faced several violations, violations in which public policies do not reach us, and other violations (...) the benefits that are set out for our people to access in this time of pandemic, they are overly bureaucratised, asking for numerous demands of people who don't even have electricity, mobile phones (...) And we have appealed to the Quilombola Parliamentary Caucus, we have sought out the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, because our enemies, they do not sleep, even in the face of a pandemic as big as the one that we are living through in this country, our enemies counterattack our people daily through the withdrawal of rights, on the issue of weakening the public structures that work