The term sanitation, from Latin origin (sanu), means the act of sanitizing or making something healthy. However, this understanding has long been broadened to be understood through the idea of being a necessary action to improve the quality of life of the population of a given geographical area. Yet, it should be noted, albeit on a preliminary basis, that sanitation must be understood as a set of measures that must be adopted to improve the quality of life of people through the rational use of spaces, thus preserving the conditions of the environment. This preservation, in turn, directly results in the prevention of diseases and the improvement of public health conditions. The World Health Organization - WHO, defines sanitation as the control of all factors of men s physical environment which have a deleterious effect on their physical, mental and social well-being (Ministério da Saúde apud Moraes 2003, p.72). In other words, sanitation can be understood as the set of socioeconomic actions that aim at continuous improvement in search of a healthy, that is, beneficial, wholesome and pleasant environment. For Federal Law No. 11,445, of January 5, 2007, which institutes the National Basic Sanitation Policy, it consists of a set of services, infrastructure and operational installations for the supply of drinking water, sanitation, urban cleaning and solid waste management and rainwater drainage and management. This law seeks to provide guidelines that guarantee the implementation of local basic sanitation, highlighting the universalization / equity of access to sanitation (that is, the democratization of improved quality of life), efficient management through the interconnection of the various infrastructures and services related to water resources, as well as socioeconomic control.