Collective discourses about a sanitation intervention occurred in Campo Leal (Sumidouro village, Rio de Janeiro) were identified among its users (10% of the people who have received the intervention) and were analyzed based on ideas of prevention of the diseases and health promotion proposal. The discourses are related to two important subjects for a new sanitation articulated to a new public health: community participation and community co-responsibility in the intervention. The results show that the ideas of prevention of the diseases were hegemonic as guideline of intervention, reducing the capacity of community participation and co-responsibility.
sanitation; environment; health promotion; disease's prevention; collective discourses