IN 2018, ABOUT 10 MILLION CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
(OR 17.2% OF THE POPULATION OF THAT AGE)
DID NOT RECEIVE TREATED WATER IN THEIR HOMES.
This study, created by BRK Ambiental in partnership with Ex Ante Consulting, investigates, from various complementary points of view, the issue of children and adolescents and sanitation in Brazil. The population from 0 to 12 years old are considered children and people between 13 and 19 years old are considered adolescents. Three fundamental aspects of life of the Brazilian youth are analyzed: health, education and insertion in the labor market.
The issues associated to health are essential for children from 0 to 4 years old due to greater susceptibility to diseases (lower immunity and greater exposition) and to greater occurrence of malnutrition.
With about 5 years of life, issues associated to education begins to gain importance and how the lack of sanitation affects the statistics of delayed school entry and academic performance. At more advanced age, the topic of basic education continues strategic, but the issue of entry into the labor market and of progression towards higher education begins to gain relevance. These topics provide a dimension of the economic conditions of the youth and remit to an important issue of fund that is the effect of sanitation in social mobility.
INTRODUCTION
chapter 1
BRAZILIAN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
chapter 2
CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AND SANITATION IN BRAZIL
chapter 3
ACCESS TO SANITATION AND HEALTH OF BRAZILIAN YOUTH
chapter 4
ACCESS TO SANITATION AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
OF BRAZILIAN YOUTH
chapter 5
LEGACIES AND SEQUELS OF LACK OF SANITATION
ANNEXES
In Chapter 1 of the study, the contemporaneous profiles of the Brazilian youths are traced based on the data from the 2018 Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNADC, Pesquisa Nacional de Amostra de Domicilios Continuada). The identification of these profiles not only helps to understand the situation of Brazilian children and adolescents, but also allows to capture the heterogeneity that exists within these population groups. This approach allows the identification of the most vulnerable minorities and ascertains their specific conditions of sanitation, health and insertion in the labor market of these social groups.
Subsequently, Chapter 2 investigates the access of Brazilian children and adolescents to basic sanitation equipment. The existence of deficits still high in 2018 is identified. Approximately 2.4 million young people still lived in houses without a bathroom for their exclusive use. That year, more than 10 millions of children and adolescents still did not receive treated water in their homes and there were 16.7 million young people who had access to the general water distribution network, but the frequency of delivery of water in their homes was unsatisfactory. The number of children and adolescents who lived in homes without sewage collection reached an even higher figure of 23.6 million. This means that one in four young Brazilians still lived in a precarious situation from the point of view of access to basic sanitation. These conditions are analyzed in regional terms and for age groups, self-declared race and household income class, which allows to identify deficits in a more precise way.
Chapter 3 of the study investigates how poor sanitation has compromised the health of Brazilian children and adolescents. The lack of sanitation led to the occurrence of infectious gastrointestinal diseases that, depending on the severity, led to the removal of young people from their routine activities, bed accommodation or hospitalization. In extreme cases, these infections associated with poor sanitation have led to death. This analysis is based on data from the 2013 National Health Survey (NHS), which identified the occurrence of 6.7 million cases of removal of young people due to diarrhea or vomiting from their routine activities. Of this total, 2.6 million children and adolescents were bedridden because of these infections. According to data from the Unified Health System, 215 thousand young people were hospitalized in 2013 and 238 deaths due to gastrointestinal infections associated with the lack of sanitation in this population. The occurrence of these diseases not only directly affects their well-being because it leads to the implicit suffering of the diseases, but also decreases the performance potential of young people in their studies.
To understand and measure these phenomena, Chapter 4 of this research deals with the education information of Brazilian young people. Average schooling and school delay indicators are analyzed for different population groups according to access to sanitation equipment. The performance of students in the 5th and 9th years of elementary school and in the 3rd year of high school is also assessed in the Basic Education Assessment System (SAEB, Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica), of the Ministry of Education, according to the groups with access to sanitation.
Finally, the study addresses how the lack of sanitation directly affects the perspectives of young people who, in the natural sequence of their lives, seek insertion in the labor market or continue their higher education studies. These questions are analyzed based on PNADC statistics and data from the National College Entrance Exam (ENEM, Exame Nacional do Ensino Medio). The analyzes identify basic sanitation among the determinants of income distribution and social mobility in the long run. In a broad sense, this final chapter of the study assesses how the lack of basic sanitation limits the potential well-being of Brazilian children and young people, compromising their health, education and economic activities. Seen from another angle, this analysis indicates, on the one hand, the potential welfare gains that could be obtained with the advancement of sanitation and, on the other, the tragic legacy of the lack of sanitation for the future.