Análise multicritério para a priorização de investimentos em sistemas de esgotamento sanitário

Abstract

Basic sanitation is a right guaranteed by the Federal Constitution of 1988 and has a direct impact on sectors such as health, education, and environmental preservation. In Brazil, there is a significant deficit in access to sanitary sewage systems, as in 2021, 44.2% of the population did not have access to a sewage network and just 51,2% of the sewage was properly treated. Studies on the universalization of basic sanitation indicate that the process would bring significant savings in government spending related to the healthcare system. Although there are not enough resources to implement all projects, it is necessary to make investments in this area effectively in order to reduce social inequalities. This study aimed to develop a multicriteria analysis model for prioritizing investments in municipalities with the highest lack of sanitary sewage systems through the application of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and ELECTRE II methods. The indicators chosen to evaluate the alternatives were divided into two categories: Sanitation indicators and Socioeconomic and health indicators. This division allowed the establishment of comparable criteria within each category. The methodology consisted of assigning weights to criteria through consultations with three sanitation experts from the Federal University of Paraíba. The final responses obtained were evaluated using the inconsistency test and showed consistent results with consistency ratios below 10%. The results showed the experts' preferences for the criteria of Adequate Sanitary Sewage Index and Hospitalizations due to Diarrhea per thousand inhabitants. On the other hand, Total Service Coverage Index and Municipal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) were indicated as the least relevant indicators. After establishing the priority order of the criteria, the application of the AHP method resulted in the creation of a table with municipalities ranked by order of priority in receiving investments. The AHP method indicated the municipalities of Caaporã, Conde, and Santa Rita as the most in need, while the ELECTRE II method allowed the comparison of alternatives by evaluating the limits of unacceptability and indicated the municipalities of Caaporã, Conde and Pitimbu as the most in need. The discrepancies in the results can be attributed to the compensation provided by the AHP method, which allows the evaluation of one criterion to be compensated by another criterion.