Sanitation system requires adequate behavior

In Brazil, the companies which provide public sanitation services face many problems. One of them is the constant clogging of the sewage collection networks, which causes alarming situations, such as the waste reflux to homes, hospitals, nurseries and schools, putting people at risk of serious contamination. Furthermore, the obstruction of sewage pipes motivates leaks and erosions on streets and buildings, which forces companies to allocate large sums of public resources to the constant monitoring and maintenance of sewage collection systems.

As in other public services, this case also depends on popular cooperation, since the two main reasons for network obstructions are (1) the dumping of garbage in toilets, a factor that is constantly increasing due to the growth of consumption of packaging and disposable materials, and (2) the irregular connection of pipes that collect rainwater to the sewage collection network, which is not designed to contain objects or a large volume of effluent. Despite mass awareness campaigns, there is no significant change in the number of occurrences attended by the sanitation company, in general.

Thus, in 2011, when the company started to implement the central sewage system in the municipality of Monte Mor, a city located about 130 km from São Paulo, I saw the opportunity to promote a process of awareness and re-education of the population. By teaching how to properly use the sewage system, I could amplify the great public health benefit that came to town.

How to do it?

The project "Education for Sanitation" was implemented in the municipality of Monte Mor between August and October 2011, having as target audience the 2,300 students from the 1st to 5th years of the public school system. The objective was to make the students aware of the importance of the correct use of the sewage collection network, at the exact moment when the municipality received its sanitary sewage system, composed of networks, pressure devices and the sewage treatment station. The choice of the children's age was due to the willingness of that group to receive new information and adjust their behavior to them, as well as to the influence of children within their families.

In this context, the theater was the way I found for transmission of the message to children. The project consisted of a twenty-minute-long sketch, in which two singer mices - Fred and Tal -, dreaming of being famous, describe the problems faced by them for not having their homes connected to the sewer network. These problems detract them from the time they should devote to practice, despite the fact that they were always smelly. With the arrival of the sewage collection system, they celebrated the possibility of having their home connected to the network, but still had to learn how this benefit should be used properly so it would not become a problem for them and the community they lived in.

From the initial proposal, the actors who participated in the project developed the characters, their personalities and characteristics, important points for the creation of empathy with the children.

The results came up immediately. By monitoring the behavior of the children at the schools where they studied, it was found that the problems of dumping garbage and objects in the toilet reduced dramatically. This shift kept the possibility of pipes obstructuins away from those schools. From this scenario, it was possible to deduce the multiplication of this change of attitude in all the places where the children lived, including their homes.