Adesão ao sistema de esgotamento sanitário: estudo de caso em Natal - RN

Abstract

Despite the accession to public sanitary sewer network being provided by Federal Law (14.026/2020) and population's need for this service, users are usually resistant to household connection. This resistance interferes in economic and environmental sustainability of sewage collection system (SCS). In Natal, Water and Sewage Company of Rio Grande do Norte (CAERN) implemented the SCS in subwatershed 02 MS, which consists of part of Capim Macio and Ponta Negra districts. This work aims to investigate accession to sewage system in this watershed. Based on literature review and documentary research about the region, an online form was elaborated (through Google Forms platform) and publicized to users of the studied area. Results showed that 62.6% of buildings in 02 MS watershed are connected in SCS, numbers close to those found by Rodrigues (2011) in metropolitan area of Vitória – ES, which was between 50.7% and 81.6%. Among them, Campo Belo has 66.8% of its buildings connected in SCS. The answers also present that many customers are misinformed about sewage services, what makes connection harder, given that most of motivations for interconnection are based on the belief in benefits. The justifications for not using SCS are mostly based on the lack of technical conditions, like not receiving authorization to execute the connection or problems in water collecting storages. The last do not depend on the customer, because they are measures that must be taken by the service providers. This research highlights the need to elaborate and review strategies to inform the population about the significance of sanitary sewage as well as the importance of inspecting and monitoring systems in operation, in order to make the technical conditions to access the system available to most costumers.