Water and Sanitation Policy in Brazil: Drivers of a Unique Experiment

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Léo Heller is King’s College London’s Rio Branco chair at the Brazil Institute. He is the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation. He is currently a Senior Researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and was previously a Full Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. He holds a Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the University of Newcastle, United Kingdom.

Dr Heller has extensive experience in research and teaching in the field of water supply, sanitation, and related public policy and human rights. Over his career, he has supervised more than 75 MSc and PhD theses and dissertations and has coordinated large interdisciplinary research projects. He is the author of over 260 publications, including books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journal articles. His book The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation was published by Cambridge University Press.

Claudia joined the Department of European & International Studies (EIS) at King’s College in September 2025. Before, she lectured in Environmental and Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies at Brandeis University, MA, USA. She completed her PhD in International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Her research spans international, environmental, and development studies, grounded in sociology. She examines the relationship between environmental politics, climate finance, and uneven development, particularly how international green strategies affect agrarian conflict and traditional populations. Between 2018 and 2023, she was based in Belém, Pará, Brazil, where she also worked as an international cooperation advisor for the Belém city government.

Alex is a political ecologist with a keen interest in the political economy of water. Having carried out research on struggles over water in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Durban (South Africa) in the early 2000s, he has more recently focused on the financialization of water infrastructure in London (UK) and the right to water globally. Alex joined King’s in 2012 after spending 7 years at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The author of Everyday Environmentalism, Alex is also co-author, with Gustav Cederlöf, of Discovering Political Ecology. Along with his wonderful colleagues Katie Meehan, Naho Mirumachi, and Majed Akhter, he is a co-author of Water: A Critical Introduction. Alex has also co-edited two books on the right to water with Farhana Sultana and co-edited a collection on Gramsci’s spatial and political thought with Mike Ekers, Gillian Hart, and Stefan Kipfer. He is currently the editor of Antipode.

Hosted by the King's Brazil Institute, King’s Brazil Week is an annual celebration of all things Brazilian.

During Brazil Week 2026, we bring together outstanding speakers whose work illuminates Brazil’s evolving governance landscape through the lenses of public policy, insecurity, health, and urban conflict.

Please follow Brazil Institute’s future plans and check out our forthcoming Leslie Bethell Lecture series.

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