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4.11.1. Institutional Links for Health Management
In addition to intraministerial links, the Ministry of Health’s
links with other ministries are very important in order to
ensure that SINVAS is well structured and operational. The
most relevant of these ministries are the Ministry of the
Environment, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Planning,
besides other Federal Government agencies and
organisations (CGVAM, 2001).
Working towards this goal, the Ministry of Health signed a
Technical Co-operation Agreement with the Ministry of the
Environment with a view towards developing a set of
integrated environmental health policies and actions and
strengthening initiatives to increase these actions’
institutional, political and socio-environmental impacts. The
Health and Environment Co-operation Agreement, signed
by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the
Environment on November 7, 2001, aims at setting up a
federal government environmental health agenda so as to
In addition, the Working Group on International Health and
Environment Issues was created on June 21, 2001, through
Ministerial Decree 922 issued by the Ministry of Health.
This working group aims at discussing and incorporating
health and environmental issues dealt with in international
agreements, treaties, conventions, protocols and other
international law documents into the Brazilian legal system.
Through this forum, FUNASA has been able to contribute
to the Ministry of Health’s participation in the process of
assessing the implementation of Agenda 21, and in the
preparations for the Rio + 10 Summit, to take place in
Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002.
The Ministry of Health acts as vice-president to the Chemical
Safety Action Plan Co-ordinating Commission (COPASQ -
Comissão Coordenadora do Plano de Ação para a Segurança
Química), which also includes FUNASA, ANVISA and
FIOCRUZ. A set of 16 priorities was agreed on, and their
related actions are carried out and followed up on by their
respective co-ordinating institutions. COPASQ was
established by the Ministry of the Environment in April 2001
to meet the commitments made by the Brazilian
Government to implement the principles, guidelines and
priorities described in Chapter 19 of Agenda 21 and
consubstantiated in the “Bahia Statement” and the “Priority
Action Lines for Beyond 2001” during the 3 rd Section of the
Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety – IFCS, which
took place in Bahia in October of 2000. FUNASA co-ordinates
Priority no. 10, which determines the presentation of a
“Report on Risk Reduction Initiatives for Chemicals of Major
Concern”.
identify priority co-operation areas to be part of the
pluriannual action plan.
Social participation in SINVAS will take place through the
National Health Council (CNS - Conselho Nacional de
Saúde), the National Environmental Council (CONAMA -
Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente), and other alliance
mechanisms such as the private sector, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), unions, etc.
In order to ensure the quality of the water distributed to
the populations who have access to treated water, the
Ministry of Health has started, through the National Health
Foundation - FUNASA, the implantation of the Information
System for Health Surveillance related to Water Quality
for Human Consumption (SISAGUA - Sistema de
Informação para a Vigilância à Saúde relacionada à
Qualidade da Água para Consumo Humano). With the legal
support of Ministerial Decree no. 1469/2000, the Brazilian
government has been given access to an information
system able to indicate the main risk zones in the country
(according to control and surveillance data), which will
enable it to monitor and plan the interventions to enlarge
and improve the quality of the water distributed to the
population (CGVAM, 2001).
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