Regional concessions will try to unlock the solid waste sector - ISTOÉ DINHEIRO

After the regionalization of water and sewage services has advanced in Brazil, the federal government is betting on the formation of blocks of municipalities to give financial scale to activities related to solid waste. The country already coexists with consortia of municipalities in this modality, but it still needs to move forward to overcome the lack of investments in the sector – both for the adaptation of these blocks and for the creation of new ones.

In practice, each block of municipalities has the potential to generate a new concession, in which a private company will be responsible for the construction and maintenance of the sanitary landfill. “The objective is to regulate this issue”, said the National Sanitation Secretary of the Ministry of Regional Development, Pedro Maranhão, to the Estadão/Broadcast.

For this, the folder will need to consider two realities. First, in regions where municipalities already use the same landfill, in which there will need to be a transition from the current provision to the new concession model. “We are studying a way for it to be regionalized. It makes no sense not to take advantage of this previous organizational structure,” said Maranhão. According to him, however, there is still no definition on the transition period that will be applied in these situations, which is being discussed with the market.

In the second situation, the ministry works with the guidelines for organizing consortia for the concession of new sanitary landfills. In the sector, the formation of blocks is seen as essential to enable the arrival of investments for waste management. Without it, some isolated municipalities are not able to have the scale to hire a private company and close long-term contracts that allow efficient provision of services.

“How is a municipality of 2,000 inhabitants going to make a concession? The path is to regionalize”, said the executive president of the Brazilian Association of Waste and Effluent Treatment Companies (Abetre), Luiz Gonzaga.

AUCTIONS

In some regions, the structuring of auctions in the area of waste has already advanced, with the expectation of five disputes to be held this year. The estimate is from the Secretariat of the Investment Partnerships Program (PPI), which supports a portfolio of ten urban solid waste projects, seven of them for consortia and three for isolated municipalities. Of the total, seven are already in the structuring process and should benefit 4.3 million people and hire investments of around R$ 7.95 billion.

One of the most advanced plans is for the municipality of São Simão (GO), whose auction is scheduled to take place on the 11th. There, however, services for the treatment and final disposal of solid waste will be tendered together with the water and sewage activities .

According to the PPI, the projects structured in the portfolio adopt a common concession model, for a period of up to 30 years, charging fees for the joint provision of water and sewage services.

In a note, the PPI acknowledged that the biggest challenge in the management of urban solid waste in Brazil is linked to the lack of economic and financial sustainability for the necessary investments. “The institution of tariff collection together with the structuring of concessions has been the biggest challenge faced by the federal government and municipal administrations”, said the note.

In the segment, the expectation is that the pressure on mayors and municipal councils will increase this year, with the Public Ministry and the audit courts acting to monitor compliance with the legal framework.

The president of the National Forum of Managers of Urban Cleaning and Solid Waste Management and Secretary of the Environment of Guarujá (SP), Sidnei Aranha, recognizes that the creation of the task is not a simple process from a political point of view.

“Any creation of a new tax or charge has a huge discussion”, he said. But he said the issue needed to be addressed. “We have to create that source of resources.” The information is from the newspaper. The State of São Paulo.