Pinheiros have the worst quality among rivers in the Atlantic Forest – 03/21/2023 – Environment

Cutting through the heart of São Paulo’s fast-paced financial center with its slow pace, the Pinheiros River is the most polluted among 120 bodies of water in the Atlantic Forest. The data is from an annual survey carried out by the NGO SOS Mata Atlântica since 2015, launched to mark World Water Day, celebrated this Wednesday (22).

Among 160 points monitored by volunteers, water quality was considered fair in 75% of cases, poor in 16.2% and terrible in 1.9%. None were registered with optimal quality. All three sites that fall into the worst category are on the Pinheiros River.

Over the last few years, the river, which stretches for 25 km, has been the focus of the São Paulo government’s depollution policy. In 2019, the then governor João Doria even stated that Pinheiros would be clean and with its banks recovered by 2022.

In a note, the Tarcísio de Freitas administration (Republicans) said that it will intensify public policies and programs for the maintenance and complementation of actions aimed at cleaning up both Pinheiros and Tietê. The government added that it will soon announce these measures.

“The Pinheiros River had a very bad quality and now it’s terrible”, says Gustavo Veronesi, coordinator of the Observando os Rios program, which carried out the study. “That means that the river is improving, the works were effective, but it’s not clean.”

He points out that the way this process took place was interesting: the companies that were carrying out sewage collection and treatment works were paid after the quality of the rivers and streams that flow into Pinheiros improved.

According to Sabesp, since 2019, 650,000 properties have been integrated into the sewage treatment system in the region and 86,600 tons of garbage have been removed from the river.

“More than 2 million people had access to a service they didn’t have. But there are still a lot of people to be assisted”, says the researcher.

The slow flow of the river is also an obstacle: as the water drains very slowly, it does not circulate enough for it to be oxygenated, which, in turn, impairs the process of decomposition of the sewage that has already fallen into the river.

Veronesi says that it is essential that the depollution measures do not stop. “It needs to have continuity, this is not a government project. We have to understand the depollution works as a public policy, in fact, not a government one. It is not in four years that a problem of almost a century is solved.”

The Secretariat for the Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics said that the entity’s report adopts different criteria from the Pinheiro water quality index prepared by Cetesb, “which may reflect in different classifications of quality ranges”.

The ministry added that, considering Cetesb’s analysis, there was a significant improvement in the quality index of Pinheiros at the point close to the Pedreira Pumping Plant, compared to the last five years.

Also according to the folder, “it is already possible to notice the return of fauna in the river and to feel the difference in the odor, which allowed the implementation of leisure equipment for the population on its banks and its return to the daily lives of citizens”.

The Atlantic Forest is home to more than two thirds of the Brazilian population. In addition, it is the second biome with the largest water coverage in Brazil, with more than 21,000 km² of water surface, second only to the Amazon (106,000 km²), according to the Mapbiomas Água platform.

The results show that almost 20% of the points analyzed do not have the minimum conditions for water to be used on a daily basis —such as in agriculture and industry, in human and animal supply, and for leisure or sports.

The methodology adds to the physical, chemical and biological indicators different perception parameters to assess water quality, such as turbidity, floating garbage, odor and presence of fish. The survey is carried out by the NGO sponsored by the company Ypê.

The study covers 74 municipalities in 16 states of the Atlantic Forest and shows how the lack of sanitation is a chronic issue in Brazil.

“It is a gigantic problem. More than half of the Brazilian population does not have access to this service”, says the expert, pointing out that this issue unfolds on two problematic fronts.

On the one hand, it affects the health of people, who will often drink this water and get sick. According to the World Health Organization, for every dollar invested in water and sanitation, US$4.30 is saved in public health costs.

On the other hand, it impacts the environment: sewage thrown into water bodies is organic matter and the bacteria that will decompose it consume the oxygen in the water, ending the availability of oxygen for other forms of life, such as fish.

According to the legal framework for sanitation approved in 2020, by 2033, access to clean water needs to reach 97% of the population and sewage treatment, up to 90% of Brazilians.

Veronesi also points out that other problems in the relationship with rivers and other bodies of water are repeated throughout the country.

“The Guaíba River, in Rio Grande do Sul, is quite compromised. The Capibaribe, in Pernambuco, still attracts attention, despite having improved. In Bahia, in Salvador, the Jaguaribe River suffers from problems similar to those of other urban rivers, such as plumbing and grounding”, he lists.

“It is a model that has already proved to be ineffective, which causes problems and managers continue to make that choice as if it were going to work. But that maxim is true: we are not going to get different results doing the same thing”.

The results of the SOS Mata Atlântica report will be presented at the UN Water Conference (United Nations), which begins this Wednesday and runs until March 24, at the organization’s headquarters, in New York.

At that time, the NGO must present a request for the right of access to water to be included in the Constitution.

“We hope that the Brazilian State recognizes water as a fundamental right and, with this recognition, provides a basis for treating water with special care in the country”, says the researcher.

Currently, a Proposal for an Amendment to the Constitution (PEC 6/21) is being processed in Congress for this legislative change to take place. The text has already been approved in the Senate, but is awaiting a vote in the Chamber of Deputies.

The idea, he explains, is that the inclusion in the Constitution gives a stronger legal basis to the demands and brings more public policies focused on improving water quality.

A delegation from the federal government, with 50 members, should also participate in the conference. The delegation is headed by the executive secretary of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, João Paulo Capobianco.

The event also features members of Brazilian civil society, such as the Águas Resilientes initiative, which will present a letter with concerns from Brazilian youth on the subject at the event.

Access to water in quality and quantity is an essential human right to life recognized by the UN and is part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite this, it is not distributed equally among the population: it is estimated that around 35 million people do not have access to drinking water in Brazil.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}