This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the increasing inequalities in access to water and the concentration of the deficit among certain population groups. In particular, it seeks a better understanding of the multiple inequalities of access to water that can exist within a community that lacks a water supply system. Data collection took place in the community of Cristais (Ceará) and included the application of 232 questionnaires to all of the community's heads of household between May and July 2014. The findings reveal that the conditions of access to water in relation to quantity and physical and economic accessibility are not uniform within the community of Cristais and these inequalities derive from the various forms of vulnerability found in the community. Understanding how these inequalities in access function within an excluded group can contribute to the development of more effective public policies to tackle this problem.

The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation (HRWS), adopted as UN Resolutions since 2010, contemplates key elements that seek to ensure equal and non-discriminatory access to water and sanitation, including the elimination of gender inequalities. Working in populations with socio-environmental vulnerabilities, this study aims to assess gender division of labor in households of two rural communities in the North and Northeast Brazilian macroregions and identify why greater impacts occur on the lives of women when compared to men, resulting in human rights concerns. A qualitative analysis was carried out through semi-structured interviews and direct observation. The study showed that in the two rural Brazilian communities there is a clear labor division for water and sanitation access from a gender perspective. Men undertake more specialized work, sometimes requiring greater physical effort. As for women, they are assigned functions related to the domestic environment, including activities concerning water and sanitation. When facilities are inadequate, there is a disproportionate impact on women's health and quality of life, showing that the non-compliance with the human rights to water and sanitation often results in more harmful consequences for them.

Resumo Este artigo busca analisar a política pública de abastecimento de água e esgotamento sanitário durante as gestões do Partido dos Trabalhadores, entre 2007 e 2014, identificando, nos instrumentos da política, uma ambiguidade entre uma lógica mercantilizadora e uma lógica do saneamento como direito social. São examinados o crescimento das empresas privadas de saneamento no período, evidenciando suas características, e as mudanças recentes, com entrada do capital internacional. Finalmente, são apresentados, como o contraponto ao que vem ocorrendo no Brasil, casos internacionais de retomada da gestão pública, que demonstram que a privatização não é a única alternativa, e que é possível conciliar eficiência e uma lógica de saneamento como direito social.

Rural sanitation is still a challenge in developing countries, such as Brazil, where the majority population live with inadequate services, compromising public health and environmental safety. In this context, this study analyzed the demographic density of these rural agglomerations using secondary data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The goal was to identify the possibilities associated with using small-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors for sewage treatment, mainly focusing on biogas production and its conversion into energy for cooking, water heating and sludge sanitization. Results showed that most rural agglomerations lacking the appropriate sewage treatment were predominant from 500 to 1500 inhabitants in both northern and southern Brazilian regions. The thermal energy available in the biogas would be enough to sanitize the whole amount of sludge produced in the sewage treatment plants (STPs), producing biosolids for agricultural purposes. Furthermore, the surplus of thermal energy (after sludge sanitization) could be routed for cooking (replacing LPG) and for water heating (replacing electricity) in the northern and southern regions, respectively. This would benefit more than 200,000 families throughout rural areas of the country. Besides the direct social gains derived from the practice of supplying biogas for domestic uses in the vicinity of the STPs, there would be tremendous indirect gains related to the avoidance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, an anaerobic-based sewage treatment may improve public health conditions, life quality and generate added value products in Brazilian rural areas.

Public toilets are essential infrastructure to guarantee the right to sanitation in public spaces and, in more general terms, the right to inclusive and sustainable cities. Moreover, since the equipment has a direct user interface, it is important to understand their demands and needs. Given this, the present research aims to understand the perspective of public toilet users on the Pampulha Lake Shore (PLS), a public touristic place in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. For that, observations and semi-structured interviews were carried out with different public toilet users. In addition, comments posted on the Google Local Guides tool of Google Maps were used as a secondary database for understanding users' experience of PLS toilets. The analysis made it possible to identify aspects related to availability, quality (health and hygiene), security, and accessibility. Collected data showed how the conflicting choice of whether or not to use the toilet was directly related to the health and conservation of the urban equipment and interfered with social and leisure prospects. On the whole, the importance of the user's perspective was highlighted in this study with emphasis on elaborating adequate urban planning with regard to health, sanitation, and accessibility issues.