{"id":20941,"date":"2015-03-22T09:01:15","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T12:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=20941"},"modified":"2016-04-05T10:49:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T13:49:00","slug":"rios-favelas-familiar-with-water-shortages-now-set-to-affect-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=20941","title":{"rendered":"Rio’s Favelas Familiar With Water Shortages, Now Set to Affect All"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Brazil, which holds 12%<\/a> of the world\u2019s fresh water supply, is in the midst of one of the most severe droughts in its history. Rio de Janeiro\u2019s main water reserves are teetering on a brink, relying on meager\u00a0reserves\u00a0when it doesn’t rain\u00a0and only barely filling up<\/a>\u00a0when\u00a0it does.<\/p>\n

Despite international recognition<\/a> of the severity of the situation and almost a decade of warnings<\/a>, politicians and water utilities\u00a0(Nova Cedae in Rio) have been devastatingly slow to act. They are denying wrongdoing<\/a>\u00a0and that the crisis will lead to rationing<\/a>,\u00a0meanwhile enacting only the most minimal of short-term solutions. Rio water company Cedae is hoping to fight off\u00a0the crisis with a small exhibition about changing water use habits<\/a>\u00a0(see Cedae’s C\u00f3digo Not\u00edcia 2865). S\u00e3o Paulo water company Sabesp has tried but failed with “cloud seeding<\/a>,” a technique that involves sending\u00a0airplanes to disperse additional substances into the air\u00a0in order to induce rain. The majority of the\u00a0dubious<\/a>, expensive<\/a>, and varied<\/a>\u00a0proposed\u00a0solutions\u00a0still do not address\u00a0the root of the crisis:\u00a0deforestation<\/a>\u2014abuse of forest resources\u00a0through agriculture (about 70%<\/a>) and industry (about 20%<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Bubbling,<\/a>
Bubbling, toxic water in the canal on Avenida Visconde de Albuquerque in Leblon. The canal was created to keep Leblon beach clean of trash and pollution and stands as a symbol of the government’s skewed priorities in terms of water allocation and infrastructure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The country\u2019s hydric collapse is more advanced in S\u00e3o Paulo where there are official talks of a “rod\u00edzio de \u00e1gua<\/a>“\u2014a ‘five days off, two days on’ rotation scheme\u2014to control the use of water, and where the city\u2019s poorer, peripheral neighborhoods have already suffered periods of up to a week\u00a0without water<\/a> over the past months. But the crisis has also arrived in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the greatest consumer\u00a0of water<\/a> in the country at 301 liters per person per day<\/a>, using triple\u00a0of what the United Nations considers sufficient<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not much\u00a0has been said about how this drought has affected, and will continue to affect, poor neighborhoods and favela communities far more profoundly than the rich, nor about the risk of violent social conflicts that have already occurred<\/a> on a small scale in what could become a war to obtain an essential resource<\/a>. In places that suffer chronically from poor or even non-existing\u00a0infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0inadequate\u00a0sanitation<\/a>, a severe drought can\u00a0compromise living conditions\u00a0to a perilous degree.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The city government promised the Vila Laboriaux<\/a> Residents’ Association a space for meetings and community events after it\u00a0allowed temporary squatters into the association’s prior headquarters to get out of hand. After several years, what were they\u00a0offered? The city presented them with this dark basement, the floor of which is covered in open sewage.\u00a0Issues of water and sewage continue to be at the forefront of community associations\u2019 agendas throughout the city as the government fails to guarantee access.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rationing schemes based on rotating schedules, such as the proposed “rod\u00edzio de \u00e1gua,” are favorable\u00a0to\u00a0the wealthy\u00a0who\u00a0are more likely to have the resources to invest in tanks for mass water storage<\/a>\u00a0when their water is “on.” Low-income Brazilians, on the other hand, are able to store\u00a0less and would\u00a0at times remain\u00a0without water or pay inflated\u00a0prices for large jugs of water or water trucks when their water is “off.” Rationing based on need and per capita amounts of water, while still an unpopular\u00a0measure,\u00a0at least aims to distribute resources more evenly. However,\u00a0as the ex-President of Sabesp, Gesner Oliveira, said, the rich can always simply\u00a0buy Perrier<\/a>\u00a0in desperate times.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of Rio’s favelas receive water directly or indirectly from Cedae through formal systems or informal siphoning in the many cases where\u00a0the utility has not officially arrived. Water may be on for a few days here and off for a couple of days there in favelas, ranging from the largest, Rocinha, in the South Zone, where this is common, to small communities like Vila Paci\u00eancia in the West Zone where this apparent rationing has begun with this summer’s drought.<\/p>\n

A few favelas, however, depend on natural sources. The Rainha River, for example, normally runs through the Parque Natural Municipal da Cidade (Municipal Natural Park), serving residents of the Parque da Cidade<\/a> favela. But since the river has dried up the favela goes up to 9 days at a time without water.\u00a0Vale Encantado<\/a>, a favela working to become fully sustainable<\/a>, has also experienced the drying up of one of its natural sources this summer.\u00a0Biologist Jo\u00e3o Paulo de S. Rosas, who works in the park, linked this local crisis to national deforestation. He said: \u201cthe health of the people depends on the health of the forests. If the forest dies, that\u2019s when people will really feel the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Parque Natural Municipal da Cidade, which borders the Parque da Cidade favela and serves as an entry point for the larger Tijuca National Forest, is at high risk. Its water sources have run dry for the past several years as the consequence of drought and diversion by the park\u2019s wealthy residents. Although the park was originally a public resource, wealthy families have purchased land and built homes at the top of the hills, diverting water once used by favela residents and park-goers for domestic use and to fill their pools.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Favelas have a history<\/a> of living with, debating<\/a>, and implementing solutions to water and sanitation problems. With the crisis escalating, will\u00a0something only be done when\u00a0the taps run dry and the plight of\u00a0favelas is\u00a0felt by everyone?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A “fonte”, or fountain, of potable water tucked in the forest behind Rocinha’s Vila Laboriaux community. With spotty water service in homes and natural water perceived as healthier than City water, residents make the trek into the forest carrying bags or vessels to bring back water to their homes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Another “fonte” in Parque da Cidade.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Brazil, which holds 12% of the world\u2019s fresh water supply, is in the midst of one of the most severe droughts in its history. Rio de Janeiro\u2019s main water reserves are […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":20950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,335,1282,452,328,1329],"tags":[474,203,755,348,415,1616,12,535,156,489,514,1575,370,21],"writer":[1574],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-policies","9":"category-research-analysis","10":"category-rio20","11":"category-understanding-rio","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-inequality","15":"tag-infrastructure","16":"tag-laboriaux","17":"tag-parque-da-cidade","18":"tag-reference","19":"tag-rocinha","20":"tag-sanitation","21":"tag-south-zone","22":"tag-tijuca-forest","23":"tag-vale-encantado","24":"tag-vila-paciencia","25":"tag-water","26":"tag-west-zone","27":"writer-lara-mancinelli"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20941"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=20941"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=20941"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=20941"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=20941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}