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Eye on Urban Water Pollution |
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By Mario Osava*
Brazil's
two biggest metropolitan regions face serious problems when it comes
to their potable water supply. Observers recommend more investment
in basic sanitation.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 30 (Tierramérica) - Around
30 million people are affected by water contamination in Brazil's
two biggest metropolitan areas. In Sao Paulo, this means water shortages.
In Rio de Janeiro, the water supply itself is not diminished, but
pollution threatens to make it unusable by leaving it undrinkable.
As a result, these two heavily populated areas live under the threat
of periodic shutdowns of their water networks.
For the 18.5 million people who live in the Sao Paulo metropolitan
region, "it's a time bomb that could explode any moment," says Maria
Luisa Ribeiro, coordinator of the Waters Network, an initiative
of the local environmental group SOS Mata Atlántica Foundation to
promote communication and social participation in national water
management.
At their maximum capacity, the eight systems that supply Sao Paulo
handle 65,000 liters of water per second. The population relies
on "the good will of San Pedro", the god of rains for the people
of Brazil, Ribeiro told Tierramérica.
For many years, the different neighborhoods shut down waterworks
on alternate days. This rationing, which lasted until 2002, came
to an end thanks to an adjustment in distribution and to greater
rainfall, but "without expanding the availability of water," said
the activist.
The city of Sao Paulo was founded in a location with limited water
resources, at the head of the Tieté River, which crosses Sao Paulo
state. Later, deforestation and housing along the river's banks
limited its capacity, and continues to be encroached by illegal
settlements.
The 2000 census led to estimates that 1.6 million people reside
in those areas, according to the non-governmental Socioambiental
Institute, which studies and monitors local water sources. The population
has grown a great deal in recent years, and that means more sewage
and garbage is being dumped in reservoirs and rivers.
The rigidity of the 1975 Water Source Protection Act, which restricts
settlements in watershed areas, had the opposite of its intended
effect: the area was occupied illegally, which led to unregulated
water and sewage runoff, noted Ribeiro.
And greater contamination makes water more expensive. In the last
five years, the need for chemicals for treating the water to make
it potable has increased 51 percent. Distribution costs have also
gone up, because half the metropolitan population relies on the
Cantareira system, located 70 km from downtown Sao Paulo. Furthermore,
that water comes from the Piracicaba River, which is shared with
other big cities, generating "management conflicts" and disputes,
Ribeiro said.
SABESP, the Sao Paulo state sanitation agency -- today recognized
as the best in Brazil -- implemented measures to expand water resources
and water treatment, improve distribution and promote rational water
usage.
This was in addition to the fight against water leaks. An estimated
one-third of water is lost through breaches in the distribution
network.
Meanwhile, the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region has a less pressing
situation. The water supply is assured until 2025 -- though not
necessarily potable -- for its more than 11 million inhabitants
and new industries, said Friedrich Hermes, president of the Guandú
River Watershed Committee, source of 85 percent of the water.
The system benefits from a series of five dams built decades ago
to generate electricity, exploiting the Paraíba do Sul River, which
begins near Sao Paulo and runs across all of Rio de Janeiro state.
Its waters are the main supplier of the Guandú system, which provides
120,000 liters per second untreated, of which 90,000 are used for
the urban water distribution, Hermes told Tierramérica. The remainder
of the flow is the basis for the prediction that there will be no
shortage until 2025.
The volume gives officials a bit of tranquility, but does not ensure
water quality. "There is no risk of shortage in the short term.
The Guandú River, expanded by the man-made shift of water from the
Paraíba do Sul, provides a more than sufficient volume," said Edes
Fernandes de Oliveira of CEDAE, the Rio de Janeiro state water and
sanitation company.
"Nevertheless, if the aggression against the environment doesn't
stop, in the long term there will be problems," he said in a Tierramérica
interview.
Among the main problems is runoff -- untreated -- of water used
by the population. This has grown a great deal over the past decades
in the Guandú basin as the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area has
expanded to the west.
CEDAE, which aims to protect the local environment and promote reforestation
of the banks of the rivers and reservoirs, also banned extraction
of sands from the Guandú riverbed -- an activity that previously
went unchecked.
Today the the influx of people has slowed and "shouldn't grow very
much in the next few decades," said Hermes. Another problem is the
garbage dumped along the rivers, and the wastewater from industry
attracted by the abundance of water itself and by other favorable
factors, like the Sepetiba port.
José Roberto Araujo, parliamentary adviser and an official with
the Rio state environmental body, offered another explanation. Because
it is located near the middle Paraíba do Sul River, the city is
assured abundant water, but also the disadvantage of receiving the
pollution from Sao Paulo state, where the river runs through a densely
populated and industrialized area, he said.
The river also receives the runoff from other major cities within
the state itself, without prior treatment, he said. The industries
located along the river contaminate the water, but are under tighter
controls. And some of them, like the national steel giant, CSN,
have complied with a recent program to curb pollutants, Araujo added.
But the problem surpasses state borders. According to Paulo Canedo,
a water expert at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the
general problem across Brazil is the scant attention paid urban
sanitation and water treatment, and decades without the necessary
investment.
Governments "spend a lot on making water potable" and on medical
attention, but fail to make basic sanitation a priority, which would
be more economical because it would reduce the cost of obtaining
water and would improve public health, Canedo said.
* Mario Osava is an IPS correspondent. |
