The event took place between September 22nd and 24th and emphasized discussions on guaranteeing the right to water and basic sanitation.

Between September 22nd and 24th, 2025, the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) hosted a seminar on the Environment, welcoming researchers, professors, journalists, public managers, and representatives from NGOs, social and environmental movements to discuss the main issues in the field. The speakers at the event, organized by ABI's Environment Committee and Culture Directorate, participated in roundtables and panels throughout the days to address the topics of Environmental Education, Carbon Credits, Water & Sanitation, and Coverage of COP30.

The panel that inaugurates the seminar, “Environmental Education in the Reconstruction of the Country,” will feature closing remarks by Marco Sorrentino, Director of Environmental Education at the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), and will be moderated by Denise Amador, from the NGO Mutirão Agroflorestal. “Carbon Credits: Decarbonization and Energy Transition,” moderated by Maluh Martins, a journalist and member of ABI's Environment Commission, was the panel that kicked off the second day of the event, followed by “Coverage of COP30,” moderated by Katia Brasil, executive editor of the Amazônia Real agency and journalist at ABI.

The last day of the seminar (24) was dedicated to the theme “Water and Sanitation as Human Rights: UN General Assembly Resolution 64/292”, receiving speakers Leo Heller, researcher at Fiocruz and rapporteur of the resolution at the United Nations (UN), Vitor Soares Duque Estrada, president of the Union of Sanitation and Environment Workers of Rio (Sintsama-RJ), and Professor Adriana Sotero Martins, senior researcher at the National School of Public Health Sérgio Arouca (Ensp/Fiocruz).

The fight for the human right to water, sanitation, and health is the common thread and point of convergence among the speakers at the closing panel, which will be moderated by Marcos Montenegro, communications coordinator of the National Observatory for the Rights to Water and Sanitation (Ondas). “The case of the concession/privatization of water and sewage services in the state of Rio de Janeiro” is the title of the presentation by Dr. Adriana Sotero, who also coordinates the Popular Surveillance in Sanitation and Health in the State of Rio de Janeiro project for ENSP/Fiocruz.

Check out the full event schedule

The project, which began in 2024, follows the process of social resistance to the privatization of the Rio de Janeiro State Water and Sewage Company (Cedae), which occurred in 2021, uniting civil society organizations, institutions, social movements, collectives, academic entities, and both partisan and non-partisan groups. Seeking to combat the commodification of water and sanitation, the Popular Surveillance in Sanitation and Health has been carrying out work that combines practice and theory by collecting and analyzing data in vulnerable communities and territories in the State of Rio.

The objective is to map the state of water treatment, sanitation, and the general working conditions of the sector's concessionaires through the application of a questionnaire with more than 70 questions addressed to residents of different neighborhoods and communities that make up the metropolitan region and the state. Developed in partnership with Professor and researcher Maria José Salles (Ensp/Fiocruz), sub-coordinator of the project, the material is divided into three fundamental axes that will be analyzed in the study: 1) Water and utilities; 2) Sanitation; and 3) Environmental health and diseases.

Some of the research findings, the reality of sanitation in these areas, and the health conditions to which their populations are subjected will be presented at the ABI Environment Seminar, along with other information, questions, answers, and reflections on the current and urgent climate issues of our time.