Proposição de um índice de vulnerabilidade humana à insuficiência de saneamento básico em municípios de pequeno porte: a experiência do Estado da Paraíba.

Abstract

The lack of basic sanitation services poses a serious threat to the human population, causing impacts in several sectors. Understanding the factors that increase the vulnerability of people and territories allows identifying the most critical and directing immediate actions to improve the quality of life of the most affected communities. This work aimed to develop an index that synthesizes the socioeconomic, institutional and human health aspects, in the face of the lack of basic sanitation in the small municipalities of the State of Paraíba, based on the three basic dimensions of vulnerability - risk, susceptibility and capacity adaptive. The selection of indicators to compose the index had as primary reference a work in the area of surveillance in environmental health, of the Ministry of Health. The methodological path of construction and validation of the index configured in three stages: conception of the theoretical framework to be used; weighting and standardization of indicators using multivariate statistical techniques, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis; and validation, which consisted of application and analysis within the context of small municipalities in Paraíba. The results made possible, from the use of geoprocessing techniques, the visualization of important aspects of the vulnerability processes, such as, for example, the geographic influence of large urban centres on the small municipalities of Paraíba. It was possible to verify that vulnerability is also a reliable indicator of inequity and social inequality present in the places. In the general panorama of the state, it found that the Agreste Paraibano presents scenarios of high vulnerability, due to its economic, sanitary and sociodemographic characteristics. It was expected that methodology developed and the results generated can support plans for the elaboration of public policies that provide significant improvements in the quality of life of the most vulnerable populations.