Planos municipais de saneamento básico do Ceará: uma análise das tecnologias de tratamento de esgoto dos 10 municípios mais populosos do Estado

Abstract

Basic sanitation is a right of the population and is closely linked to the quality of life. All desire universalizing these services, and municipal basic sanitation plans aim to guide society’s efforts to achieve this goal. This study addresses the topic related to Municipal Basic Sanitation Plans with a focus on evaluating the technical solutions proposed for sewage treatment. The research selected the 10 largest municipalities in the state of Ceará to apply a qualitative adapted methodology that assigns values to the plans based on criteria of universality, equity, comprehensiveness, intersectoral coordination, and appropriate technology. The evaluated plans were accessed through different sources, and out of the 10 chosen plans, only two (Sobral and Quixadá) were unavailable for any evaluation. The evaluation involves categorizing the plans into three categories based on their scores: Green Plan, which possesses the most attributes according to the FUNASA reference document, is the desired plan; Yellow Plan, which has intermediate detail in its contents; Red Plan, consisting of plans that do not address all the contents or, if they do, address them superficially. The research indicated that (1) the plans are not always made fully available to the population as indicated by Law 11,445/2007; (2) the most mentioned technologies were stabilization ponds, and secondly, anaerobic reactors for centralized systems, while septic tanks were the most mentioned for decentralized systems; (3) the plans only include some of the contents requested by the terms of reference or present them partially. The plan for Fortaleza was the only one classified as a Green Plan; Caucaia, Juazeiro do Norte, Itapipoca, and Maranguape received a Yellow Plan classification; Maracanaú, Crato, and Iguatu received a Red Plan classification.