COP30: Belém is among the capitals with the worst sewage – 02/29/2024 – Environment

Belém, capital of Pará and host city of COP30, the UN conference on climate change to be held in 2025, occupies the tenth position among the capitals with the highest percentages of the population living under inadequate sanitation. The precarious sanitation situation is a reality in several municipalities in the North and Northeast.

There are 212,370 inhabitants of Belém who live with inadequate sanitation, according to new data from the 2022 Demographic Census released last Friday (23) by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).

When contacted, Belém City Hall did not respond until publication. The government of Pará, in turn, cites new investments and works to improve services.

The number represents just over 16% of the population of the capital of Pará, which, in 2025, should receive political and civil society leaders from around the world for another UN conference that seeks to stop the climate catastrophe — increasingly palpable in events extremes that are already occurring in parts of the world.

“Inadequate”, in the Census nomenclature, refers to drainage through rudimentary ditches or holes, ditches, rivers, lakes, streams and other diverse forms. The classification is also used for households in which there is no bathroom or toilet.

The situation is nothing new and is one of the causes of concern regarding the infrastructure for COP30 in Belém, which will mark ten years of the Paris Agreement. At the summit, the new NDCs (an acronym in English for nationally distributed contributions) should be presented, as each country’s greenhouse gas cutting targets are called.

The capital with the worst position in the ranking, considering the percentage of the population with inadequate sanitation, is Macapá. In the main city of Amapá, 44.7% of the inhabitants (196,610 people) have inadequate sewage.

At the top of this list are also, in order, Porto Velho (Rondônia), Maceió (Alagoas) and Manaus (Amazonas) with, respectively, 42.1% (192,347 people), 32.6% (311,183), 30% (616,669) of the population with inadequate sanitation.

Garbage not collected

In relation to garbage collection, once again, states in the North and Northeast dominate the ranking of capitals with the highest proportion of households with uncollected garbage. In this category, according to IBGE, are cases in which waste is disposed of by burning on the property, material buried on the property or thrown on vacant land, slopes or public areas, among other possible destinations.

Belém appears in seventh position, with 2.7% of the population, which represents 35,739 people with uncollected garbage.

It is worth noting that, at the beginning of this year, the city went through a garbage crisis, with piles of waste accumulating in the streets.

The situation is worse, in percentage terms, in other capitals, such as Porto Velho, in Rondônia, where 8.1% of the population is listed in the Census as having no garbage collected, the equivalent of 37,048 inhabitants.

The list continues with Macapá, Rio Branco and Teresina, with, respectively, 5.5% (24,029 people), 5.3% (19,282) and 4.1% (35,330) with uncollected garbage.

Water

Even with considerably lower percentages, the issue of water supply is also a problem in northern capitals, including Belém.

The IBGE divides the classification of inadequate supply into: water trucks, stored rainwater, rivers, dams, streams, lakes and streams, among other forms.

In the capital of Pará, the category “other [forma]” inadequate supply is attributed to 0.9% of the population, or 11,154 people. Another 0.2% of inhabitants (2,566) have supply through rivers.

Macapá, again, and Rio Branco appear at the front. In the capital of Amapá, around 2.5% of the population (11,115 people) have water supply from rivers, and 1.1% (4,689) were classified in the “other” category. In the capital of Acre, 1.7% of the population (6,027) is supplied with river water.

A Sheet sought the Belém Municipal Sanitation Secretariat to comment on the Census results and actions taken, but there was no response until publication. Belém City Hall was also unsuccessfully contacted. Furthermore, the government of Pará and its sanitation agency were contacted, which gave a joint response to the report.

Cosanpa (Companhia de Saneamento do Pará) stated that a loan of R$ 314 million was approved by BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) for “the works of the second stage of the Bologna Water Treatment Plant, which serves the metropolitan region of Belém, in addition to the reform of several water distribution sectors. According to the entity, this “will strengthen the provision of the service”.

The company also said it had contracted a credit operation worth US$125 million (around R$621 million) with the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) for investment in sanitation.