ABSTRACT
The main feature of this model was the centralization of water supply and sanitation services through state-wide platforms, each operated by a state water company created under the aegis of a powerful financing scheme. These were controlled at federal level, based on a mix of fiscal and non-fiscal sources. The model is still inertial as regards present strategies because most of the existing services are still supplied by state water companies, tied to state-wide technical and managerial premises, and drawn from the unprecedented expansion of infrastructure and service coverage experienced at that time. The main strategic argument for the state-wide supply model was crosssubsidization between profitable and non-profitable service areas, in which areas requiring subsidy would be supported by surplus-generating areas. This was an idealized formula to promote social coverage with no direct subsidization from tax revenues, instead keeping distributive measures within the limits of the services’ economic self-sustainability.
