Brazil's Sanitation Framework is a data challenge before it is a construction challenge

When Brazil approved its New Sanitation Framework in 2020 (Law 14.026/2020), the headline was ambitious and easy to understand: by the end of 2033, 99% of the population should have access to treated water and 90% to sewage collection and treatment. In some cases, the deadline can be extended to 2040.

Most of the public debate since then has focused on investment: auctions, concessions, new treatment plants, kilometers of pipe. All of that is essential. But there is a less visible part of the challenge that will decide how much of that investment actually reaches people — and it starts with data.

Where the country stands

The distance to the target is still large. According to the most recent national data (SINISA, base year 2024, as compiled in Instituto Trata Brasil's 2026 Sanitation Ranking), 84.1% of Brazilians have access to treated water and 56.7% have sewage collection. Only 51.8% of the sewage generated is treated. More than 30 million people still lack water service, and around 90 million live without sewage collection.

Closing that gap requires building. But every new connection is fed by the same distribution networks that already exist — and those networks leak.

The hidden reservoir

In 2024, Brazil lost 39.53% of the treated water it produced before it reached a customer, according to a study by Instituto Trata Brasil and GO Associados based on SINISA data. That is roughly 4.4 billion cubic meters in a single year — enough, by the study's estimate, to supply about 77 million people for a year.

Some of that water physically leaks from pipes and reservoirs. Some is consumed but never measured or billed, because of inaccurate meters, irregular connections, or registration errors. The first is a real (physical) loss; the second is an apparent (commercial) loss. Both cost money. Only one wastes water — and the strategies to fight each are different.

The federal government has turned this into explicit targets. Ministry of Cities Ordinance 788/2024 sets maximum loss levels that tighten over time: up to 35% by 2025, 30% between 2026 and 2032, and 25% from 2033, alongside matching limits in liters per connection per day. In 2024, the national average stood at about 349 liters per connection per day, against a 2033 benchmark of 216. Among the 100 most populous municipalities, only 12 met both 2033 benchmarks.

From target to obligation

In December 2025, the National Water and Sanitation Agency (ANA) approved Reference Norm 15/2025 (ANA Resolution 275), which sets national guidelines for the progressive reduction and control of losses in water distribution.

The logic of the norm is straightforward. Service providers must produce a loss diagnosis based on a standardized water balance and submit it to their regulator every year. Regulators must require — and then approve and monitor — loss reduction and control management plans. Compliance checks are expected to begin in May 2028.

In other words, the cycle has already started. Regulators need to update their rules, and providers need to start collecting the data their first diagnoses will depend on. An operator that reaches 2028 without a reliable water balance will struggle to show a credible plan, let alone results.

You can't reduce what you can't measure

This is why loss reduction is, first of all, a data problem.

A water balance is only as good as the measurements behind it. If the volume entering the network is estimated rather than metered, if customer meters are old or inaccurate, and if the network is not divided into areas that can be measured separately, the result is an average that hides where the losses actually are. Teams end up replacing pipes where it is easiest, not where it matters most.

Operators that make consistent progress tend to follow the same sequence: make the network measurable, measure it continuously, and only then decide where to dig.

A practical roadmap

1. Sectorize. Divide the network into district metered areas, each with a controlled number of inlets. It turns one large, opaque system into many small ones whose inflow and consumption can be compared.

2. Measure. Install or upgrade macro-metering at production and district inlets, and modernize micro-metering at customer connections. Accurate measurement at both ends is what makes the water balance trustworthy — and it separates real losses from apparent ones.

3. Monitor continuously. Annual or monthly snapshots are not enough to find leaks early. Telemetry on flow and pressure, with alerts on abnormal patterns such as night flow rising in a district, shows where losses are growing while there is still time to act.

4. Act — and prove it. With measurable districts and continuous data, repairs, pressure management, and meter replacement can be prioritized by impact. The same data then feeds the annual diagnosis and the evidence regulators will ask for.

None of these steps replaces investment in infrastructure. They make sure that investment goes where it delivers the most water, the most revenue, and the most progress toward the targets.

The operators that start now

The 2033 deadline gets the headlines. For water losses, the more immediate dates are already on the calendar: tighter limits from 2026 and regulatory checks from 2028.

The difference between operators will not only be how much they invest, but how well they know their own networks. Those that build the data foundation now — sectorized, measured, and monitored — will reach those dates with evidence in hand. Those that don't will be estimating.

Sources: Law 14.026/2020; Instituto Trata Brasil / GO Associados, water loss study based on SINISA 2024 (June 2026); Instituto Trata Brasil, Sanitation Ranking 2026 (SINISA 2024); Ministry of Cities Ordinance 788/2024; ANA Resolution 275/2025 (Reference Norm 15/2025).