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For days, it is increasingly difficult to find bottled water on the shelves of supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro, where mineral water has become an object of luxury. This is what happened in the Brazilian city after, mysteriously, the tap water of some neighborhoods began to taste earthy, a strange smell and a cloudy color.
After several days of silence, Cedae, the public company that manages water in the state of Rio, attributed the problem to geosmine, a substance produced by algae, which would not present health risks. Even so, several experts recommended avoiding consumption, highlighting that geosmine may indicate the presence of other toxic components . Some analyzes pointed to a greater than normal presence of heterotrophic bacteria, which can feed the bacteria that cause disease.
Cases of diarrhea, vomiting and gastroenteritis increased exponentially in some parts of the city, but, for now, it is not possible to relate them to the water supply. So far, 69 neighborhoods in the capital and six other cities in the metropolitan area have already been affected.
The origin of the problem is at the Guandu treatment station, which is supplied by the waters of the river of the same name and is responsible for supplying water to 75% of Rio de Janeiro, almost 8.5 million people. Those responsible for the water company found a solution: active carbon to kill the algae. It will start using next week, but nobody dares to give a date to completely normalize the state of the water.
For the environmentalist Sérgio Ricardo, founder of the NGO Bahía Viva, that option is a patch, because the current water crisis is nothing more than the reflection of a much more serious problem: " At the point of capture of Guandu three extremely contaminated tributaries flow Since 2001, the station had to stop operating 22 times due to the poor quality of the water, it is intractable water, sometimes even with chemical products it cannot become suitable for consumption When there are distribution problems, who More sorry are the slums and the peripheries, but now the whole city is noticing. It is a structural problem in Rio de Janeiro, not a specific issue, "he criticizes.
The said organization filed an appeal with the Prosecutor's Office to denounce the responsible authorities and to adopt an emergency plan. In addition, they regret that in the last 15 years the water treatment and treatment policies in the state of Rio stopped investing 11,000 million reais (more than 2.3 billion euros), which contributed to aggravate the current situation.
In the specific case of Guandu there was a plan to divert contaminated tributaries that was never put into practice. The threats to Rio's water system are numerous: the Paraíba do Sul river, the main source of clean water for the city, is surrounded by mining dams in very precarious conditions , and one of the main aquifers that supplies the city, that of Pinanema , with 200 square kilometers, it is threatened by the infiltration of a controlled landfill where 9,000 tons of garbage arrive every day.
Rotten streams
The negligence of the authorities regarding the quality of the water that surrounds the 'Wonderful City' already starred in the covers of half the world four years ago, shortly before the Olympic Games. Guanabara Bay, where sailing events were held, which scared athletes for their pollution, is the same one where dozens of rivers and rotting streams flow into. Many of them indirectly supply the water that comes out of the tap of the Cariocas.
Apart from the underlying ecological problem, which adds decades of broken promises , there could also be more specific human and management errors. The president of the Cedae, Hélio Cabral Moreira, came to be charged with the Mariana mine disaster of 2015, the worst environmental tragedy in the recent history of Brazil, which left 19 deaths and a huge wave of toxic mud . At that time he was an advisor to the Samarco mining company, and was accused of having done nothing despite knowing that there was a risk of accident. Finally, Justice did not find sufficient evidence to blame him. In March of last year he was criticized by Cedae workers for having dismissed 54 technicians in charge of water quality control in the middle of a political dispute over company control.
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