Waste of water in Brazil is equivalent to six Cantareiras, says institute
Annual waste equals eight billion reais
In addition to dumping the equivalent of five thousand sewage pools into its rivers every day, Brazil wastes a volume of water per year that corresponds to six Cantareira systems. The comparisons were presented on July 8 by the president of Instituto Trata Brasil, Édison Carlos, in a public hearing at the Senate Infrastructure Committee. The institute is a civil society organization of public interest (Oscip), formed by companies with an interest in advances in basic sanitation and in the protection of water resources in the country.
"The sanitation situation in Brazil is not consistent with a country that is the seventh largest economy in the world," he told the senators. Édison Carlos added that the annual waste of water is equivalent to R$ 8 billion that do not return to basic sanitation.
He stressed that, if these financial and natural losses were avoided, it would be possible to reduce the taxes levied on the sanitation sector. The governor of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, participated in the public hearing and said that regardless of the waste and the water crisis, “the sanitation companies have become tax collectors”.
In his view, prevention campaigns have shown results in combating losses. According to Alckmin, in São Paulo, the campaigns were responsible for reducing water costs in 83% of consumer units (homes, companies, industries, for example).
To stimulate water savings, the state government adopted the strategy of giving bonuses to those who started to use it rationally and charging more from the units that kept the expenses, said the governor.
Source: Agência Brasil
