Práticas em saneamento rural: um estudo no contexto da agricultura familiar

There is a high deficit on sanitation services in Brazil, mainly on rural areas and urban centers peripheries, where lies the poor. In rural areas, several factors are seen as responsible for the scenario: the historical lack of government initiatives, failures relating to governance and low conceptual exploration about rurality issue and its relation to sanitation, strengthening the ignorance of public policymakers about target population. Thus it is essential to carry out studies on these issues allowing a different conception of rural sanitation for the country. In order to promote advances in rural sanitation, was recommended by PLANSAB the formulation of a National Program of Rural Sanitation and this research was developed in the context of elaboration of this Program. To make it possible to contribute to the analysis of the rural sanitation situation, it was decided to investigate the sanitation in the context of family farming group which currently represents 84% of Brazilian farms and has great social, economic and cultural importance in the country. The study was conducted through four case studies and used qualitative methods of data collection and analysis to capture the perception of the population on the subject. The field research use flexible strategies of data collection, where various qualitative methods were applied simultaneously, performing individual semi-structured interviews and observations of researchers. The data analysis were preformed according to thematiccategorical content analyses, in order to extract the results categories related to study topics. The results showed communities with restrictions and deprivations in terms of access to public services and policies, mainly due to the conditions of small farmers and residents of rural areas in relation to the residents of the urban area. In terms of sanitation, it was observed Regarding health conditions, they do not differ from the conditions commonly seen in rural areas as a whole, especially with individual solutions, and whose improvements implemented vary according to the financial conditions of the residents. It was also found that the management of sanitation services is closely linked to community relation - government, social participation and the presence of local leaders - which are also related to each other - combination which resulted in safer sanitary conditions