CASE STUDY 6

Brazilian Case Study

Salvador is the fifth largest Brazilian city (~2.5 million inhabitants). Large portions of the population live in poor urban communities lacking urban infrastructure/services (sanitation, trash collection, pavement, urban planning), presenting chronic issues of overcrowding, pests (e.g.: mosquitoes, rats), and environmental risk such as flooding-prone open sewer canals. The study areas are undergoing the implementation of simplified closed sewer systems (condominial sewer, an innovative method linking multiple households to integrated branches of sewage piping), a process happening with deliberative and executive participation of the residents of the intervened regions. Our case study aims to describe the effects of sewer systems in reducing impact on biodiversity loss and pathogen circulation risk in the animal-human-environment interface.