Uma análise do racismo estrutural nas políticas públicas de recursos hídricos e saneamento no Brasil

Abstract

This study defends the thesis that the dominant paradigms in the National Water Resources Policy (Law Nº 9433/ 1997) and in the National Sanitation Policy (Law Nº 11.445/2007) that organize the activities of engineering professionals involved in the management of water resources (over the last 30 years) and sanitation contribute to the reproduction of persistent structural racism in Brazilian society, making certain racial groups vulnerable to their right to access safe drinking water. Through a theoretical-methodological look guided by the theory of structural racism and the approach to capabilities, we observe the reality of Brazilian society, focusing on the historical and political processes of water and sanitation management. Racism is conceived as a structure that integrates the economic and political organization of society, capable of producing a process of vulnerability to certain racial groups. Added to this, the notion of “access” to water was expanded beyond the existence of a tap connected to the general supply network because the human right to water is associated with a certain type of access that allows human development and the experience of life that people value. This perspective contributed so that the main objective of this work - to contribute to the production of knowledge for the integration of public policies on water resources, sanitation and health with effective social justice - was achieved using a qualiquantitative approach in the light of the theoretical framework - methodology chosen. The qualitative analysis focused on the critical reading of the records of the process of processing a bill in the National Congress, between 1989 and 1991, aimed at the formulation of the National Water Resources Policy, enacted on January 8, 1997. Such reading allowed highlight: 1) the central concern of parliamentarians with economic development, to the detriment of human development; 2) an over-representation of whites in relation to other racial groups; 3) the absence of official records demonstrating the presence, in the parliamentary debate, of an approach that considered socioeconomic and gender inequalities, and racism, persistent in Brazilian society. Secondly, in relation to the National Sanitation Policy, quantitative analyzes using descriptive and inferential statistics allowed us to observe an association between the incidence of hepatitis A and the main components of the indicators on water supply. We see the reproduction of structural racism related to water management that contributes to the deprivation of capabilities related to a certain type of access to safe water for human consumption by vulnerable racial groups. Thus, this thesis contributed to the expansion of knowledge in the field of environmental sciences in water management and sanitation by mobilizing theoretical references and research techniques from the social and human sciences through an interdisciplinary reading of water for human consumption, producing knowledge on the manifestation of structural Brazilian racism in the national public policy on water resources, geographically located in one of the states of the federation, Rio de Janeiro