Environmental Sanitation in Porto Alegre City, Brazil: A Basic Step towards Sustainable Development

Porto Alegre city, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul State, is an important medical, educational, and technological hub in Brazil. However, Porto Alegre faces critical challenges in achieving adequate environmental sanitation, hampering the development of the city, and negatively impacting the most socially vulnerable segments of the population. Although Porto Alegre’s sanitation plan aims at universal access to sewage collection and treatment services by 2035, some of the city’s sanitation indicators have deteriorated in recent years compared to other Brazilian cities. The inadequate or lack of proper sanitation (e.g., shortcomings in sewage collection and treatment, suboptimal management of solid waste, deficiencies in the distribution of treated water) contribute to the proliferation of disease vectors like mosquitoes and to the spread of infectious and parasitic diseases (e.g., toxoplasmosis, leishmaniasis, arboviral diseases). Recently, Porto Alegre’s population experienced a significant number of dengue infection cases. Climate change, social issues, and unplanned urbanization will further favor disease transmission in the region. In this Review, we provide an overview concerning the ecological, socio-economic, and public health aspects of Porto Alegre, drawing attention to the insufficient environmental sanitation in the city, a neglected problem by local authorities. We argue that this issue needs to be seriously addressed if Porto Alegre wants to realistically achieve sustainable development, protecting ecosystems and human health.