Abstract
Ensuring access to drinking water and sanitary sewage services must be guaranteed to the population living in Brazil's rural areas. However, the implementation of relevant laws across the country remains inconsistent, leaving many rural areas with precarious access to these resources. The study focuses on management model observed in Divinópolis/MG, where services, primarily provided by Copasa, are predominantly geared towards urban areas. The study presented in this article analyzed the influence of this management approach water and sewage provision in the rural areas. Official documents, reports from managers and community leaders generated in interviews were analyzed, as well discourses from residents of two rural agglomerations in the municipality produced through interactions in focus groups. The theoretical-methodological framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) enabled the construction of the corpus, description and dialectical-relational interpretation of the textual material. The analysis showed the levels and modes of engagement among municipal public managers in relation rural sanitation and the need for actions that integrate rural and urban demands. The narratives of the actors involved in the research point to a problematizing view of current water and sewage management, since the network of discourses investigated represents hegemonic political practices that act to persist the urban/rural fragmentation.
Keywords:
rural sanitation; management model; hegemonic practices; social participation