It was significant the reduction of child mortality rate associated with waterbornediseases in Brazil in the last two decades. Applying an epidemiological model we wereable to identify that not only improvement in sanitation coverage as well as access toeducational and health services were responsible for such rate pattern. Based on oureconometric results we estimate how much each service expansion would cost to saveone single life by reducing the analyzed mortality rate. Our results indicate thatcontinuous access to education is by far the least cost alternative. However,prevention with sanitation services seems to match almost equivalent costs of thedefensive expenditures on health services.