Abstract

In 2015–2016, Brazil experienced an outbreak of infectious diseases transmitted by mosquitos (“Ædes ægypti”), which was associated with the lack of sanitation in densely populated urban areas. Regardless of the Sanitation Act which was enacted in 2007, half of the country’s population still lacks access to wastewater collection. This study assesses, through a bioeconomic model, which is usually applied to fishery management, the sanitation policy throughout the last two decades (1995–2014), when an outbreak of mosquitos had been taking place. Just like the rate of growth of fish stocks meets an upper bound when catches increase, the volume of wastewater collected ought to meet an environmental absorption limit. Therefore, a logistic, long-run program of wastewater collection is compared with the volume actually collected by state companies. Results suggest that these companies’ investments in sanitation facilities have been insufficient and inefficient. The maximum economic yield (MEY) occurred in 2003, whereas budgetary sanitation commitments peaked as of 2007.