Brazil's drought

This morning's report on South America on Radio New Zealand omitted any mention of drought in Brazil

Biggest Brazil metro area desperate for water

By Adriana Gomez Licon

NZ Herald,

8 November, 2014

ITU, Brazil (AP) It's been nearly a month since Diomar Pereira has had running water at his home in Itu, a commuter city outside Sao Paulo that is at the epicenter of the worst drought to hit southeastern Brazil in more than eight decades.

Like others in this city whose indigenous name means "big waterfall," Pereira must scramble to find water for drinking, bathing and cooking. On a recent day when temperatures hit 90 degrees (32 Celsius), he drove to a community kiosk where people with empty soda bottles and jugs lined up to use a water spigot. Pereira filled several 13-gallon containers, which he loaded into his Volkswagen bug.

"I have a job and five children to raise and am always in a rush to find water so we can bathe," said Pereira, a truck driver who makes the trip to get water every couple of days. "It's very little water for a lot of people."

Brazil is approaching the December start of its summer rainy season with its water supply nearly bare. More than 10 million people across Sao Paulo state, Brazil's most populous and the nation's economic engine, have been forced to cut water use over the past six months. A reservoir used by Itu has fallen to 2 percent of capacity and, because its system relies on rain and groundwater rather than rivers, the city is suffering more than others.

In Itu, desperation is taking hold. Police escort water trucks to keep them from being hijacked by armed men. Residents demanding restoration of tap water have staged violent protests.

Restaurants and bars are using disposable cups to avoid washing dishes, and agribusinesses are transporting soybeans and other crops by road rather than by boat in areas where rivers have dried up.

"We are entering unknown territory," said Renato Tagnin, an expert in water resources at the environmental group Coletivo Curupira. "If this continues, we will run out of water. We have no more mechanisms and no water stored in the closet."

The Sao Paulo metropolitan area ended its last rainy season in February with just a third of the usual rain total only 9 inches (23 centimeters) over three months. Showers in October totaled just 1 inch (25 millimeters), one-fifth of normal.

Only consistent, steady summer rains will bring immediate relief, experts say.

But they also place blame on the government, which they say needs to upgrade a state water distribution network that loses more than 30 percent of its resources to leaks. Advocates also call for treatment plants to produce more potable water, along with better environmental protections for headwaters and rivers flowing into reservoirs.

Tagnin and others say the government ignored calls to begin rationing water months ago because it didn't want to take such a step before the October elections and risk losing votes. The government, however, maintains there will be no need for rationing. It says its measures to conserve water are working, such as offering discounted water bills for those who limit usage and reducing water pressure during off-peak hours.

But activists and consumer groups complain the government has done too little too late and failed to keep consumers informed.

The state's largest utility, which supplies water to more than 16 million people in Sao Paulo's metropolitan area, for months avoided acknowledging the looming shortage. Only recently did the Sabesp utility release maps showing which neighborhoods were at risk of water cuts, and was careful to avoid using the hot-button term "rationing."

In Itu, where the taps have been dry for weeks, residents dream of rationing At least that would mean some water for their homes.

"I forgot what water looks like coming out of the faucet," said Rosa Lara Leite, a woman carrying a few gallons of water in each hand at one of the city's crowded drinking fountains.

Authorities forced the city of 160,000 to cut its daily water consumption from 16 million gallons (62 million liters) to 2 million gallons (8 million liters). Dozens of water trucks are deployed to bring in water from far off towns. Huge 5,000-gallon tanks have been set up around the city.

"We understand that people's basic need is water. They need it," said Marco Antonio Augusto, spokesman for a government task force created to manage Itu's water supply. "We are bringing water from every possible place."

Baker Franciele Bonfim is storing whatever water she can get her hands on in every possible place. She and a neighbor recently paid $200 to buy water from a private water truck, storing it in two big tanks and about 20 plastic buckets that once held margarine for her cakes.

"It's an added expense but at least I am good for 15 days," Bonfim said, as she used a thick hose to pour water into each bucket. "It has taken me a long time to use all this margarine. But water runs out fast."

Biggest Brazil metro area desperate for water

---

By Wyre Davies
7 November 2014

(Rio de Janeiro) – In Brazil's biggest city, a record dry season and ever-increasing demand for water has led to a punishing drought.

It has actually been raining quite heavily over the last few days in and around São Paulo but it has barely made a drop of difference.

The main reservoir system that feeds this immense city is still dangerously low, and it would take months of intense, heavy rainfall for water levels to return to anything like normal.

So how does a country that produces an estimated 12% of the world's fresh water end up with a chronic shortage of this most essential resource - in its biggest and most economically important city?

It's interesting to note that both the local state government and the federal government have been slow to acknowledge there is a crisis, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

That might have been a politically expedient position to take during the recent election campaign, when the shortage of water in Sao Paulo was a thorny political issue, but the apparent lack of urgency in the city and wider state now is worrying many.

At the main Cantareira reservoir system, which feeds much of this city's insatiable demand for water, things have almost reached rock bottom.

Huge pipes suck out what water remains as the reservoir dips below 10% of its usual capacity. The odd local villager wanders around the dry bed of the lake hoping for a temporary windfall as fish flounder in the few pools that remain.

In the town of Itu, not far from the slowly diminishing reservoir, Gilberto Rodriguez and several of his neighbours wait patiently in line.

All of them are carrying as many jerry cans, empty plastic drinks bottles or buckets as they can muster. For weeks now they've been filling up with water from this emergency well. Twice a day Gilberto heaves the full containers into his car and heads home.

Every other house on the short drive seems to have a homemade poster pinned to the gate or doorframe. The same message, or plea, is written on each one: "Itu pede Socorro" - "Itu needs help".

Gilberto and his wife almost break into a laugh when I suggest to them that, according to São Paulo's state government, the situation is manageable and there's no need for water rationing.

"There's been no water in our pipes now for a month," says Soraya. […]

Antonio Nobre is one of country's most respected Earth scientists and climatologists. He argues there is enough evidence to say that continued deforestation in the Amazon and the almost complete disappearance of the Atlantic forest has drastically altered the climate.

"There is a hot dry air mass sitting down here [in São Paulo] like an elephant and nothing can move it," says the eminent scientist, who divides his time between the southern city of São Jose dos Campos and the Amazon city of Manaus.

"That's what we have learned - that the forests have an innate ability to import moisture and to cool down and to favour rain… If deforestation in the Amazon continues, São Paulo will probably dry up. If we don't act now, we're lost," adds Mr Nobre, whose recent report on the plight of the Amazon caused a huge stir in scientific and political circles. [more]

Brazil drought: Sao Paulo sleepwalking into water crisis

In Brazil's biggest city, a record dry season and ever-increasing demand for water has led to a punishing drought.

BBC,

7 November, 2014

It has actually been raining quite heavily over the last few days in and around Sao Paulo but it has barely made a drop of difference.

The main reservoir system that feeds this immense city is still dangerously low, and it would take months of intense, heavy rainfall for water levels to return to anything like normal.

So how does a country that produces an estimated 12% of the world's fresh water end up with a chronic shortage of this most essential resource - in its biggest and most economically important city?

It's interesting to note that both the local state government and the federal government have been slow to acknowledge there is a crisis, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

That might have been a politically expedient position to take during the recent election campaign, when the shortage of water in Sao Paulo was a thorny political issue, but the apparent lack of urgency in the city and wider state now is worrying many.

At the main Cantareira reservoir system, which feeds much of this city's insatiable demand for water, things have almost reached rock bottom.

Huge pipes suck out what water remains as the reservoir dips below 10% of its usual capacity. The odd local villager wanders around the dry bed of the lake hoping for a temporary windfall as fish flounder in the few pools that remain.

In the town of Itu, not far from the slowly diminishing reservoir, Gilberto Rodriguez and several of his neighbours wait patiently in line.

All of them are carrying as many jerry cans, empty plastic drinks bottles or buckets as they can muster. For weeks now they've been filling up with water from this emergency well. Twice a day Gilberto heaves the full containers into his car and heads home.

Every other house on the short drive seems to have a homemade poster pinned to the gate or doorframe. The same message, or plea, is written on each one; "Itu pede Socorro" - "Itu needs help".

Polluted rivers

Gilberto and his wife almost break into a laugh when I suggest to them that, according to Sao Paulo's state government, the situation is manageable and there's no need for water rationing.

Gilberto and Soraya have had to cope with rationing for nine months

"There's been no water in our pipes now for a month," says Soraya.

"It's not as bad as this in every community but we've had water rationing here since February."

The car-crash scenario of a record dry season coupled with the ever-increasing demand for resources from South America's biggest city seems almost to have caught the state water authority, Sabesp, by surprise. The authority, in turn, is being widely criticised for failing to plan and is now trying to manage a crisis.

Home to some 20 million people, the sprawling city of Sao Paulo continues to grow. But the failure of city services and basic infrastructure to keep pace merely exacerbates the problems, in particular the dwindling supplies of clean water.

Open sewers mean that Sao Paulo's rivers are completely polluted. They're now part of the problem rather than, as should be in times of drought, part of the solution.

Maria Cecilia Brito is part of the umbrella organisation Alliance for Waters, which is belatedly trying to raise public awareness about the chronic shortages.

"People here were brought up to believe that water was a resource that would never end," Maria Cedilla tells me at her office in downtown Sao Paulo, a leviathan of a metropolis that has long since outgrown any system that could adequately support it.

She goes on: "We were taking more water from the sources than those sources were able to replenish through natural means."

'Like an elephant'

But now one of Brazil's leading scientists is suggesting that the causes of the drought may be even more worrying for Brazil in the long run.

Mr Nobre says the drought is linked to Amazon deforestation

Antonio Nobre is one of country's most respected Earth scientists and climatologists. He argues there is enough evidence to say that continued deforestation in the Amazon and the almost complete disappearance of the Atlantic forest has drastically altered the climate.

"There is a hot dry air mass sitting down here [in Sao Paulo] like an elephant and nothing can move it," says the eminent scientist, who divides his time between the southern city of Sao Jose dos Campos and the Amazon city of Manaus.

"That's what we have learned - that the forests have an innate ability to import moisture and to cool down and to favour rain… If deforestation in the Amazon continues, Sao Paulo will probably dry up. If we don't act now, we're lost," adds Mr Nobre, whose recent report on the plight of the Amazon caused a huge stir in scientific and political circles.

Water shortages have the potential to harm the economy too, and that's where the politicians in Sao Paulo and Brasilia just might start to act.

Sao Paulo is by far Brazil's richest state - the engine of the country's economic growth - but if water and electricity, generated by hydroelectric dams, start running out the consequences for the economy could be dire.

At a car parts factory in the north of the city I meet businessman Mauricio Colin. His aluminium plant needs about 15,000 litres of water a day to operate at normal capacity. Mauricio is already having to buy in extra water. He is worried about future supplies.

"The authorities know exactly what's needed," says Mauricio, above the din of his round-the-clock operation. "They have to invest in basic infrastructure because, without water, there are companies here who won't be able to produce anything."

Thus far public protests against the water shortages have been small - but the potential for frustration and disruption is there.

Sao Paulo's Water Authority has now acknowledged that unless water levels recover there may be power cuts and more water rationing. Everyone is praying for more rain, hoping that it's not too late.

New laws threaten Brazil's 

unique ecosystems

Brazil's globally significant ecosystems could be exposed to mining and dams if proposals currently being debated by the Brazilian Congress go ahead, according to new research.

Brazil's globally significant ecosystems could be exposed to mining and dams if proposals currently being debated by the Brazilian Congress go ahead, according to researchers publishing in the journal Science this week.

Credit: Alexander C. Lees

Science Daily,

6 November, 2014

Brazil´s globally significant ecosystems could be exposed to mining and dams if proposals currently being debated by the Brazilian Congress go ahead, according to researchers publishing in the journal Science this week.

The new report by a group of Brazilian and British researchers comes in the wake of Brazil´s recent presidential elections. It warns that new legislation could pose a serious threat to protected areas, weakening Brazil's international status as an environmental leader.

One of the proposals of particular concern is the call to open up 10% of the most strictly protected areas to mining. In a new analysis, the research shows that at least 20% of all Brazil´s most strictly protected areas and reserves for indigenous people overlap with areas that have been registered as under consideration for mining. In addition, many of the river systems associated with protected areas will be influenced by the construction of large hydroelectric dams.

The threat that this mining and hydropower poses to Brazil's ecosystems is not trivial. Areas of registered interest for mining include 34,117 km2 that are currently classified as strictly protected areas -- including National Parks, Biological Reserves and Wildlife Refuges. This is equivalent to an area the size of Switzerland. The situation is worse for indigenous lands, 28% of which, or 281,443 km2, overlap with areas of registered mining interest -- an area larger than the whole of the UK or the state of São Paulo.

In recent years Brazil has enjoyed increasing recognition as a world leader in combatting environmental destruction. Brazil´s protected area network is the largest in the world, while improved environmental governance in private lands has contributed to an 80% reduction in the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon over the last decade. Yet these new proposals could threaten these recent successes and undermine Brazil's reputation.

Dr Joice Ferreira, a scientist at Brazil´s agricultural research institute, Embrapa, and lead author of the study, said: "The purpose of this analysis is not to say that Brazil´s development should not benefit from its abundant natural resources, but that we should not squander our hard-won record of success and leadership in favor of fast-tracked and poorly planned development projects that leave a long legacy of environmental damage. It is possible to manage our development in a more sustainable way."

Co-author Dr Jos Barlow, a researcher at Lancaster University and a visiting professor in Brazil, said: "Rather than exploiting protected areas for short-term gains, Brazil should treasure them for the long-term benefits they can provide to society. The recent water shortages in the south east of Brazil emphasize the importance of protecting native vegetation across the country."

The authors of the study also warn that the proposals for minimizing and mitigating the environmental damage of large-scale development projects are so inadequate that even if only a fraction of these mining concessions were approved then the impacts could be enormous, especially in Brazil´s most threatened ecosystems.

Dr. Luiz Aragão a co-author of the study from Brazil´s federal space agency, INPE and the University of Exeter said: "Our concern is that even if the proposed mitigation actions were put in place they are oversimplified because they fail to take account of the indirect effects of mega-project.

"These projects can involve thousands of workers and lead to rapid local population growth. This, combined with new roads and access routes, is a recipe for the emergence of new deforestation frontiers." explains Luiz.

The study highlights the fact that these worrying changes reflect an important shift in the support shown by Brazil´s federal government to environmental protection. These concerns come on the back of other recent changes, including the partial dismantling of Brazil´s protected area system to make way for development -- with some 44,100 km2 lost since 2008 due to downsizing or abolishment -- and the weakening of the Forest Code that gave an amnesty to landowners who deforested illegally in the past.

"Beyond the conservation and stewardship of its own biodiversity and environmental resources, so vital to the wellbeing of its citizens, Brazil plays a vital role in motivating and supporting the adoption of more sustainable development trajectories around the world," said Toby Gardner, of Stockholm Environment Institute, one of the authors of the study who has worked in the country for more than a decade. "Yet this standing is now in jeopardy."

Dr Joice Ferreira said: "The newly elected government has the chance to set the record straight and point Brazil firmly on a path of sustainable development. The authors of this report call on President Dilma and her government to ensure that individual development initiatives are subject to a comprehensive, socially inclusive, evidence-based and long-term cost-benefit analysis that compares potential environmental and social impacts against alternative development options. And also to ensure that Brazil´s renowned protected area network is given the resources it needs to manage our ecosystems sustainably.

"Above all we ask the Government to guarantee that important decisions regarding the management of Brazil´s natural resources involve the full and democratic participation of Brazilian society."

end text

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Lancaster University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

end story_source

Journal Reference:

J. Ferreira, L. E. O. C. Aragao, J. Barlow, P. Barreto, E. Berenguer, M. Bustamante, T. A. Gardner, A. C. Lees, A. Lima, J. Louzada, R. Pardini, L. Parry, C. A. Peres, P. S. Pompeu, M. Tabarelli, J. Zuanon. Brazil's environmental leadership at risk. Science, 2014; 346 (6210): 706 DOI: 10.1126/science.1260194