The dissertation entitled sanitation management and the path to sustainability: the case of the Guapi-Macacu Watershed - RJ (BHGM) presents the need for coordination of actions in the pursuit of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 6, articulated with the public policies and expectations regarding the sanitation model adopted in Brazil, structured by the New sanitation law and the auctions. Considering the perspectives for the Guapi- Macacu Hydrographic Basin, which serves about 2.5 million people in the eastern portion of Rio de Janeiro, the present work deals with the need to advance in sanitation to evaluate the concession models applied and proposed in Rio de Janeiro by the concession auction. In order to understand the experiences and particularities of the study area, the French and German experience of privatization, the case of New York City, with the Payment of Environmental Services and the availability of water and the sanitation concession auctions. The proposed approach aimed to evaluate and understand the progress of water management, considering its contributions to sustainability through the conduct of governments and in the model used at BHGM. The appropriation of nature, practices, uses, culture and perceptions of the inhabitants mark the region and the debate on the availability and quality of water in the region. The historical process of legislation in Brazil, the measures and actions applied by the government in the sanitation sector, the direction for privatization and the objective of universalizing services are analyzed.