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
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
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
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
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
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.
What about the drought in Thailand? It seems just as dire as Sao Paulo http://time.com/3960462/thailand-drought/
ReplyDeletePlease see other items on this blog. I endeavour to cover all parts of the world, including Thailand.
DeleteIs the water supply of Bangkok being threatened in the short-term?
Delete