A picture of conditions in Sao Paulo

Today I had the chance to talk with a concerned citizen from Sao Paulo, Brazil about the devastating drought and water crisis.

Martha Lu has provided this short introduction: 

"I have a degree in Business but stop working to take care of my daugther...start to learn photography in the end of 2013 thinking about photographing children....but it didn't happen because of the drought.

"Since January 2014 I have been having a close look on the drought because I didn't like the way the goverment is handlng the crisis

"I started to go to the outskirts to see what is happening...because I am really concernd about the people"

Martha has provided a very compelling description of the situation.

A Facebook page A crise da Agua em Sao Paulo has been set up to provide information (in Portuguese)

Impending Catastrophe in Sao Paulo

Martha provided me with photographs of the two main resevoirs for the metropolis of 20 million people - the Cantaleira, which is below 17 per cent of capacity; and the Alto Tiete resevoir (which at the same time in 2013 at 60.9 % of capacity is at just 15.4 % capacity.

What she paints is a picture of impending breakdown and catastrophe as one of the world's largest cities runs out of water.

With regard to the latter resevoir martha wrote me:

"We are in a pre-catastrophe situation...in 80 days we coulnd not have water for 4 million pepole because of Sistema Alto Tietê"

She paints a picture where the governor, local government and media are keeping silent about the magnitude of the problem,

"I do not know what is going to happen here...the governor is not telling the truth to the people...the press is not telling the truth...and we are runnig out of water very fast. "

This will sound very familiar to most of us but if you listen to Martha is particular dire in Brazil.

Whilst there is some rain it is not enough to restore the resevoirs. Poor people do not have the reяources for rain-collection tanks and rely on very basic methods to catch rain as best they can.

It became clear that it was the poor people that are suffering from restrictions in their water supply and from drinking water that is making them sick.  Diarrhoea, hepatitis and dengue fever (from mosquitoes) is rife.

Not only Sao Paulo is affected but Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Goias, Espirito Santo, Paraíba, Ceará states are affected - the most developed and populated part of the country.

The subtropical south-east should be getting the wet season in September-October but with the developing el-Nino this looks very much unlikely to be the case.

Here is our discussion - 

From today - 

Dry Dam in August beats records

Flow was lowest for the month in the Cantareira; Alto Tiete has the worst record in history

Here are some photos of the resevoirs that were full in 2012-13.

Paraitinga Dam River-system

Jaguar Dam Cantareira-system

Dam Bridge-high tiete new system

This is how the Cantereira resevoir is supposed to look

Here are a couple of articles from Brazilian media. It is clear from the first that the Brazilian army is preparing for social breakdown. The second article is about the diseases caused by the water crisis.

The translation is electronic and thus fairly ropey but the meaning should,nevertheless, be clear.

Army simulates the occupation of Sabesp in the case of social crisis

• Military make simulation possible occupation in time of crisis
• The water crisis and social chaos in Sao Paulo enter in the concerns of the Army

Exército simula ocupar a Sabesp em caso de crise social

http://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2015/05/27/politica/1432728524_009010.html.

27 May, 2015

Via Yandex Translate

The Brazilian Army has held on the morning of Wednesday the dependencies of Sabesp, in the district of Pinheiros, in the West zone of São Paulo. About 70 military armed study the perimeter and the inside of the ring, "to a possible need for occupation, in the event of a crisis," according to the internal report sent by the company to its employees. The concept of "crisis" was not clarified by the Sabesp, but staff explained to this newspaper that is known and commented on the fear for a possible popular uprising, or intrusion attempts on the spot, if the water crisis that faces Sao Paulo if it gets worse this year. The Army considers this operation in the context of national security and qualifies the headquarters of the Sabesp as a "strategic area".

Sabesp informs that, the exception of the past year, this type of maneuver has been done in other dependencies of the company and in water treatment plants 15 years ago. Consulted by EL país, the three ex-employees of the company with over 25 years of badge of the company said they have never seen anything like it. The Military Command of the south-East states that he sent a herd of 100 military personnel to the Training in the Operations to Guarantee Law and Order "in accordance with the normal planning of the year of instruction" of the soldiers. 

"There is no correlation with the water crisis, today it was there, as tomorrow may be in towers of telecommunications or electric power," said the advisor to the Command.

At the door of the company, two employees talked the overt presence of the military in the local area. One of them, although it has been warned on Tuesday, got a scare as well in the morning when you save your lunch box in the cafeteria, where he found more than 30 men armed with machine guns. The Army arrived at around 6am and plan to continue the maneuvers until 19pm. The work of recognition of the military is being carried out more discreetly, since the 25th.

The Army had already demonstrated his concern for the aggravation of the water crisis and the social chaos that could untie before prolonged cuts in the water supply. On April 28, the Military Command of the south-East, which coordinates this operation, held in its headquarters the first lecture with the water crisis in the subject line. In the event, the director of the metropolitan of Sabesp, Paulo Massato, opened the door to the possibility of the water runs out in July, but said that the completion of the works planned by the Sabesp can ensure the supply until the next rainy season, in October.

The principal of these works is the interconnection of the Dam Billings with the Alto Tietê System, and will dump, according to the governor Geraldo Alckmin and the president of the company Jerson Kelman, a caster drastic – five days without water by two with – in the neighborhoods served by the Cantareira System. Sabesp and the Government shall ensure that, after a delay of three months, the work should finish in September and there will be no rotation.

Read the statement sent to employees of Sabesp

The Brazilian army performs the operation of security in the Complex Costa Carvalho

The area of Sabesp is considered strategic and action is part of preventive military activities aimed at preserving public order and the protection of people and heritage

In this Wednesday, May 27, the Military Command of the south-East of the Brazilian Army will be in the dependencies of Sabesp, in the Complex Costa Carvalho, for an operation inserted in the context of national security. This is the simulation for a possible need of occupation in a time of crisis, a time that the area of Sabesp is considered strategic.

Military personnel and vehicles should arrive soon in the early hours of the day and develop the activities of the security in the course of Wednesday without any interference in the work routine of the company. To ensure the success of the operation, the work of recognition of the ground by the officers of the Brazilian Army is being held from the 25h

During the water crisis, cases of diarrhea multiply in São Paulo

Epidemiological surveillance associates outbreaks of the disease in the scenario of shortages

Life with three hours of water

More news about the Water Crisis

Durante a crise hídrica, casos de diarreia se multiplicam em São Paulo

16 July, 2015

Via Yandex Translate

The cases of acute diarrhoea had been an important increase in the State of São Paulo in 2014, associated with the water crisis. The assessment is the Centre of Epidemiological Surveillance (CVE), an organ of the State Department of Health, linked to the Government Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB). The centre has qualified for the 2014 as a year of “hyper-epidemic”, after a detailed analysis, although preliminary, of the notifications of outbreaks of the disease. The body associates the evident increase of reported cases – almost 35.000 in a couple of weeks of February, march, and September – to the problems of water supply that still affect the whole of the metropolitan area and various cities in the interior. “The water crisis opens wide issues that are not new in relation to water and sanitation in São Paulo and in Brazil,” says the study.

In the historical series of the six years prior to the crisis, 2008 to 2013, the State average shows that the number of cases was between 15,000 and 20,000, never exceeding 25,000. In this series, September appears always as a month critical and registers the largest number of annual notifications, overcoming a little more than 20,000.

The UN will determine if the water crisis violates human rights in São Paulo

The decrease of pressure, the intermittency of supply, rationing, the consumption of the dead volume of the dams, and the use of water from wells and trucks, whose quality is not always inspected in accordance with the law, are the main causes that can compromise the quality of water and promote the emergence of outbreaks (occurrence of two or more cases) of diarrhea and other diseases transmitted by water, as it is pointed out the search of the CVE.

The study identifies scenarios that are relevant as of the capital and seven other municipalities in the interior of Campinas, sp (north), Tambaú (northwest), Mogi das Cruzes (eastern region), Araraquara (center), Piracicaba (northwest), São José do Rio Preto (northwest) and São João da Boa Vista (center-east) – we have noted the increase in attendances at concentrations much higher at certain times of the year, which coincide with the periods most critical of the crisis, as the end of the dry season.

In the case of Tambaú, in the town of 23,000 inhabitants, the cases of diarrhea have skyrocketed from less than a dozen to more than 90 from 16 August 2014, four days before the city declaring a state of calamity due to lack of water. The number of cases did not return to normal until November, although it was not until February of this year the average notifications continued higher than in the same period of 2014.

The periods of January to April and from August to September last year were critical in the assembly of the State. The analysis is made based on the calls epidemiological weeks, which begin on Sunday and end on the following Saturday. In the period from 9 to 15 February were recorded almost 35.000 cases in the State, as well as the week between 7 and 13 September, where the number was similar. During the rest of the week, the index of notifications has not fallen below 15,000. The number of cases, however, can be even greater. In another study of the type of 2005, the medical and sanitary Mary Bernadette de Paula Eduardo, who had been on the board of the Division of Disease Transmission by Water and Food CVE since 1999, demonstrates that only 40% of the people who have the disease, seek the services of health, which began to notify the care for diarrhea in 2000.

Source: DDTHA/CVE/CCD/SES-SP (SIVEP_DDA) DC – years of 2008 to 2013

The first conclusions of this survey were presented in may by the current director of the Division of Disease Transmission by Water and Food centre, Eliane Suzuki, with data collected and analyzed by the department of public. In the intervention, made at a seminar on safety of water for human consumption, occurred in the Faculty of Public Health, USP, Suzuki said: “one sees clearly that the number [of cases 2104] is larger. This shows that with the lack of water and the consequences that this brings, 2014 was a year of hyper-epidemic”. The presentation is available, from the minute 79, on the site of the USP.

EL país showed in a report of may this year that the contamination of the plumbing, drinking water, earth or sewage, can leave an entire street patient. The residents of Jardim Conceição, a poor neighborhood of the city of Osasco, reported that in February of this year, entire families showed symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. “The water from the sewage mixed with the pipes,” said Nazareth, 46 years, one of the affected. “The water that came out of the faucet had the smell of shit, and the whole street got sick”. Sabesp said at the time that the polluted water was the earth and that the malfunction was repaired in three days. “We do not trust in that water, much less to give to the children,” said the young Protagonist Days. The damage, he said, the left 15 days without water.

In the period from 9 to 15 February were recorded almost 35.000 cases in the State, as well as the week between 7 and 13 September, where the number was similar.

Other cases were revealed by the press, before authorities act, during the past year. In August 2014, the city of Brodowski, 339 kilometers away from São Paulo, reported 195 cases of people with vomiting and diarrhea in 15 days, according to the Folha de S. Paulo. The self-Service Water and Sewer Brodowski (Saaeb) did not rule out the possibility that people have been contaminated by water, after the supply to be relegated to the truck. Also in August, residents of the Redemption of the Serra, the municipality served by Sabesp to 163 kilometers from the capital, has suffered in their stomachs to dry your reservoir and a problem in the water treatment station, according to reports by the portal G1.

Already in march of this year, Residents of the Garden Turquoise, in M'boi Mirim (the south zone of São Paulo) received water with the smell of sewage, and, according to the journal Now, at least 57 people became ill with diarrhea, vomiting, headache or fever, after contact with the water stinking, ink and brown in color. The newspaper brought the liquid to a lab, which found the presence of fecal coliform bacteria (present in stool), which makes the water unfit for consumption, even after boiling. Sabesp has denied and said that the water met the standards without health risk.

The residents of Jardim Conceição, a poor neighborhood of the city of Osasco, reported that in February of this year, entire families showed symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.

Sabesp, which was consulted by the incidence of diseases during the water crisis in the municipalities where it operates (São Paulo, Mogi das Cruzes and São João Boa Vista), stated by means of support of the press that "the water distributed to the population is within the parameters required by the Ordinance with 2,914/2011, of the Ministry of Health". The company said that the results of the more than 62,000 monthly tests it performs are forwarded to the surveillance, the local health, according to the law.

The Department of Health stated that the data of the study were used to discuss the issue of diseases transmitted by water and food, "in addition to helping in the preparation of the contingency plan in relation to the scenario of drought and water crisis". Questioned about why the population was not warned about the risks of water-borne diseases in a scenario of water crisis, the folder stated that "it is up to each municipality to trigger their actions, in a decentralized manner, and to alert the population". The press office has denied an interview with the head of the department who did the study and evaluated after the interpretation of the report on the same, though checked with multiple sources, "is the result of anxiety because the study is still merely preliminary".

In the wake of the Hepatitis A

Willkner Eduardo Range of 21 years, and at least four more people from the same street of Carapicuíba contracted Hepatitis A in the last 15 days. / MARTHA LU

In addition to the diarrhoea and vomiting, the contaminated water can also cause other more serious diseases, such as Hepatitis A, an inflation of the liver caused by a virus, transmitted by the ingestion of water or food contaminated with fecal matter.

In Carapicuíba, at least five people have had Hepatitis A in the last 15 days in only two streets in the same district. They began to feel a strong abdominal pain, fatigue, lack of appetite, and realized that a tone yellow dyed your eyes and skin. 

Luan, seven years, Rosângela, the mother, and the young Willkner Eduardo Range, 21-year-old, were three of the victims. “I took treatment with serum and tea to pick a [medicinal herb] and I'm already as well, but the doctor told me that it was the fault of the water that I had drunk and did not return to take the faucet. The one day that I was sick, the water was a yellow color,” says Willkner.

The disease, however, remained stable in recent years in São Paulo and tends to disappear thanks to a specific vaccine applied in children, according to information of the CVE. In the past year, were reported 16 outbreaks, with up to 60 cases in the month of September. An outbreak is considered from two cases in the same font, in the same place and in the same time period.