A selectivity index for public-private partnership projects in the urban water and sanitation sector in Latin America and the caribbean.

The rapid urban development, the Agenda 2030, the climate change adaptation and the COVID 19 crisis highlight the need to increase investment in public infrastructure and improve water supply and sanitation services. For this, an alternative to traditional public procurement is the participation of the private sector under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The objective of this article is to develop a tool based on critical success factors (CSFs) that allows for evaluation during early stages of the convenience of developing a PPP project for W&S in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. The index was developed based on literature review (779 variables), review of cases (20 variables) and expert opinion to assign them an estimated value of importance. The results were analysed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, selecting 17 main variables grouped into 6 CSFs, the most relevant of which are Convenience, Certainty, Leadership, Attraction, Performance and Reliability. The application of this index allows an early assessment of the feasibility of a PPP project and/or the selection of the alternatives with the best chances of success. On the other hand, this study contributes to the international discussion on the most relevant elements related to the success of PPP in W&S projects.

[Typology of elderly women by the nature of interaction with housing and communal services.]

The article proposes a social typology of elderly Russian women who are forced to adapt to the requirements of the housing and communal services sector, overflowing with problems and conflicts. The typology is based on a combination of the parameters of the adequacy of the reflection by the elderly of the problem situation surrounding them in the housing and communal services and the severity of their activity. The following types are identified: socially adequate and active (in defending personal and collective interests); socially adequate, but passive - a group of elderly people who understand well the level and quality of housing and communal services provided to them, but do nothing; socially inadequate, but active, charged with conflict with managers of the housing and communal sphere; socially inadequate and passive. Active and adequate activists with free time and the necessary competencies who are ready to represent the interests of all residents of an apartment building are singled out from among the elderly. This type of activist is trying to enter into a strategy of equal partnership with managers of the housing and communal services sector, but is faced with an unfriendly or indifferent environment, a formal bureaucratic approach of state regulatory organizations. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study was the consideration of old age as a period of disclosure, the manifestation of new opportunities in self-realization, manifested primarily in solving everyday problems.

[An older woman in the local community in Russia: the neighborhood, non-government organizations and the public utilities sector.]

The article probes into the development of local self-organization of retired women, actively involved in resolving housing issues at their place of residence in Saint-Petersburg. The socio-spatial approach to aging, also referred to as «aging in a place / in a community¼ serves the theoretical framework. This type of aging requires an active approach to the habitual environment of the elderly and their support. It is the groups of older women that generate activists who have free time and the necessary competencies and who are ready to promote the interests of all the residents of an apartment building, a neighborhood or a district. Therefore, the empirical basis of the article was mainly the materials of interviews with women activists. In the public utilities system full of intricate semi-legal schemes, invisible and incomprehensible to the majority of ordinary citizens, activists are not always able to enter into an equitable dialogue with the controlling bodies and public utilities managers. In order to make insignificant changes, older activists are sometimes required to take tremendous efforts and develop new competencies which help to overcome barriers and to defend the collective interests.

Indoor air quality in public utility environments-a review.

Indoor air quality has been the object of interest for scientists and specialists from the fields of science such as chemistry, medicine and ventilation system design. This results from a considerable number of potential factors, which may influence the quality of the broadly understood indoor air in a negative way. Poor quality of indoor air in various types of public utility buildings may significantly affect an increase in the incidence of various types of civilisation diseases. This paper presents information about a broad spectrum of chemical compounds that were identified and determined in the indoor environment of various types of public utility rooms such as churches, museums, libraries, temples and hospitals. An analysis of literature data allowed for identification of the most important transport paths of chemical compounds that significantly influence the quality of the indoor environment and thus the comfort of living and the health of persons staying in it.

Bioética del derecho al agua potable / Bioethics of the right to drinking water

Se observa también, que en la prestación del servicio domiciliario de agua potable en Colombia, servicio que ha de ser asumido como derechos humanos fundamental, hoy enColombia se conrroboran aspectos preocupantes en relación a la prestación de este servicio fundamental en los que se evidencia improvisación, manejo bajo la lógica del negocio y aplicación por ende de modelos inequitativos de prestación de servicios públicos.

It is observed that in the provision of the service of drinking water in Colombia, a service that has to be taken as a fundamental human right. Today in Colombia, worrying aspects as for the provision of this key service are corroborated, in which improvisation is made evident, which is carried out under the logics of business and the application, therefore, of inequitable models of the provision of public utilities.

Viabilidade da regulação subnacional dos serviços de abastecimento de água e esgotamento sanitário sob a Lei 11.445/2007 / Feasibility of sub-national regulation of water supply and sewerage services under Law 11.445/2007

Objetiva-se neste trabalho discutir a viabilidade da regulação subnacional do saneamento básico no País de acordo com o estabelecido na Lei no 11.445/2007. Foi analisada a viabilidade da regulação municipal em 2.523 municípios, com base na amostra do Sistema Nacional de Informações em Saneamento (SNIS) referente a 2005, mediante a aplicação de taxas de regulação de 1 a 3 por cento do faturamento das concessionárias. Concluiu-se que a regulação local não apresenta viabilidade em 97 por cento dos municípios pesquisados.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the feasibility and the alternatives for the sub-national regulation of the basic sanitation in Brazil, as established one in the Law 11.445/2007. We analyze a sample of 2.523 municipalities from the data set of the National System for Information on Water Supply and Sewerage Services (SNIS) of 2005, assuming regulatory fees ranging between 1 percent and 3 percent of the concessionaire’s revenues. We concluded that local regulation was impracticable for 97 percent of the municipalities in the sample.