The outbreak of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) led to an unprecedented number of policy responses from public institutions involved in the health and economic sectors. Nonetheless, the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector remained in the background of this decision-making arena. The objective of the study presented herein was to observe and discuss political responses to the new coronavirus pandemic in the context of WASH during the first 40 days of the outbreak, using as cases the five Brazilian states most affected by the pandemic. We addressed this issue with a quali-quantitative exploratory study using content analysis to discuss the direction (for whom and how?) of those policy responses, through the framework of the human rights to water and sanitation. The paper also introduces a timeline to map the reactivity and proactivity of the studied institutions. We identified two major priorities in policy responses to the coronavirus pandemic: population protection and financial and economic sustainability of service providers. In regard to population protection, the findings show that it often did not contemplate all of the population, and that equality and non-discriminations were partially ignored in the laws and regulations. In addition, institutions more attached to service providers were more committed to the provider’s economic and financial sustainability than to measures to directly protect the population.

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对COVID-19大流行的政策回应中的水和卫生设施人权：巴西国家的分析

新的冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的爆发导致参与卫生和经济部门的公共机构采取了前所未有的政策措施。尽管如此，水，环境卫生和个人卫生（WASH）部门仍然处于该决策领域的背景之下。本文介绍的研究的目的是在疫情爆发的前40天中，观察和讨论在WASH背景下针对新冠状病毒大流行的政治应对措施，其中以受疫情影响最大的五个巴西州为例。我们通过定性，定量的探索性研究解决了这个问题，该研究使用内容分析，通过对水和卫生设施的人权框架，讨论了那些政策对策的方向（针对谁和如何？）。本文还介绍了一个时间表，以绘制研究机构的反应性和积极性。我们在应对冠状病毒大流行的政策中确定了两个主要优先事项：人口保护以及服务提供商的财务和经济可持续性。关于人口保护，调查结果表明，它往往没有考虑到所有人口，在法律和法规中部分地忽略了平等和非歧视。此外，与服务提供者息息相关的机构与服务提供者的经济和金融可持续性相比，更加致力于直接保护人口的措施。人口保护以及服务提供商的财务和经济可持续性。关于人口保护，调查结果表明，它往往没有考虑到所有人口，在法律和法规中部分地忽略了平等和非歧视。此外，与服务提供者息息相关的机构与服务提供者的经济和金融可持续性相比，更加致力于直接保护人口的措施。人口保护以及服务提供商的财务和经济可持续性。关于人口保护，调查结果表明，它往往没有考虑到所有人口，在法律和法规中部分地忽略了平等和非歧视。此外，与服务提供者息息相关的机构与服务提供者的经济和金融可持续性相比，更加致力于直接保护人口的措施。