A joint stock company with public utility purposes, Compesa is linked to the Government of the State of Pernambuco through the Secretariat of Infrastructure and Water Resources. It is an organization endowed with legal personality under private law, with the State as its largest shareholder.

Compesa was founded in 1971 with the mission of bringing water and sanitation to Pernambuco. Since then, an intense expansion has been planned every year and, today, almost all of the 184 municipalities in the State, plus the district of Fernando de Noronha, are on the Company's work route.

Officially, Companhia Pernambucana de Saneamento was created by Law nº 6307, on July 29, 1971. The idea was to manage, in a single autarchy, the projects that would comply with the National Sanitation Plan (Planasa), guaranteeing the economic and financial viability of the relationship between State and Union, following the model of the National Housing Bank (BNH). To this end, Saneamento do Recife (Saner) and Saneamento do Interior de Pernambuco (Sanepe) became the subsidiaries of the new company, which would replace the Sanitation Fund of Pernambuco (Fundespe). Three years later, the organizations were dissolved and the unification of services was completed in 1974.