Alex Aguiar is a PhD student in the King's Brazil Institute.

Alex is a civil engineer and holder of a master’s degree in sanitation from UFMG, currently a doctoral student in the field of public policy and management of the basic sanitation sector. He has worked for more than 25 years designing water supply and wastewater systems for several municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais.

He has also served as a consultant for the World Bank and the Luiz Eduardo Magalhães Foundation, advising the Association Centres of Seabra and Jacobina (Bahia, Brazil) on rural sanitation initiatives. He was Technical Director of Copasa (2015–2019), the water and wastewater utility of Minas Gerais, and is a member of the Municipal Sanitation Council of the city of Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil).

Research

Thesis title: 'Comparative assessment of public and private water supply and sanitation service providers in Brazil from the perspective of the human rights to water and sanitation'

The research will comparatively assess the contractual, regulatory, operational, and management aspects of water supply and sanitation services provided by private and public companies, using as a benchmark the fulfilment of the normative content attributes of the human rights to water and sanitation. In doing so, it will identify any potential conflicts between private-sector involvement in the field and the realisation of the human rights to water and sanitation.

PhD supervision

• Principal supervisor: Professor Léo Heller
• Secondary supervisor: Dr Andreza de Souza Santos