{"id":158789,"date":"2014-10-25T18:35:34","date_gmt":"2014-10-25T20:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=158789"},"modified":"2014-11-25T18:43:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T20:43:41","slug":"drought-metropolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/drought-metropolis\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought in the Metropolis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

SABESP archives<\/span>The Bispo Creek dam, part of the old Cantareira Supply system in 1893SABESP archives<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Experts are familiar with water scarcity cycles.\u00a0 Even S\u00e3o Paulo, far from Brazil\u2019s semiarid regions, experiences periods of drought that are sometimes prolonged.\u00a0 The problem becomes acute when the lack of rain occurs at the same time as a major increase in demand.\u00a0 Looking at past droughts in the Metropolitan Region of S\u00e3o Paulo (MRSP), it is easy to perceive that relationship.\u00a0 \u201cWe always remember the population boom of the 1950s and 1960s, but forget about the drastic increase in population between the end of the 19th century and the 1940s,\u201d says Ricardo Toledo Silva, professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Studies at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (FAU\/USP), who is researching the integrated management of urban water infrastructure and sanitation.\u00a0 Records indicate that the impact of the two factors\u2014drought plus population growth\u2014has brought about previous water shortages in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween 1874 and 1900, the state capital saw its population increase approximately tenfold (from 23,253 to 239,820 people).\u00a0 When calculated from 1857 to 1940, it became 57 times larger (from 23,253 to 1,326,261),\u201d Toledo reports.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s a very big jump.\u00a0 There were fewer people than there are today, but everyone lived in small areas.\u201d\u00a0 The uncontrolled growth of urban units is degrading the environment, making the soil less permeable, creating islands of heat, occupying riverside zones, and affecting the volume of rainfall.<\/p>\n

\"Laying

SABESP archives<\/span>Laying the water mains in the Tatuap\u00e9 neighborhood to supply the Belenzinho reservoir in S\u00e3o Paulo (undated photo<\/em>)SABESP archives<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The great drought of 1924 and 1925 led The S\u00e3o Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company, known popularly simply as \u201cLight\u201d and responsible for supplying electricity to the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, to publish an announcement in the newspapers on February 24, 1925, listing actions it would take so it would not have to completely suspend the supply of electric power.\u00a0 Light would start using the steam-driven power plant that it already owned, install new generators and turbines, complete a plant then under construction, and build a new hydroelectric facility.\u00a0 It would also start buying electricity from the electric company in Campinas.<\/p>\n

Another serious drought occurred between 1951 and 1956.\u00a0 The worst year was 1953.\u00a0 The water shortage of 1969 was also covered intensely by the press, because of the severity of the rationing.\u00a0 Now, in the 21st<\/sup> century, according to Toledo, the most notorious drought in the region occurred in 2003 in the area served by Cantareira, the biggest metropolitan reservoir system.\u00a0 The current drought, in 2014, promises to be the worst of any since 1930, when authorities began recording measurements in the MRSP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe population suffers from two types of water shortage: scarcity at the source, and scarcity in the distribution network,\u201d explains the researcher, who is also a technical advisor to the S\u00e3o Paulo state government\u2019s Special Advisory Board for Strategic Affairs.\u00a0 These days, water shortages caused by problems in the distribution network are merely episodic, occurring because of some accident.\u00a0 \u201cBut in the S\u00e3o Paulo of the 1920s to the 1970s, both situations often occurred simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Construction

SABESP archives<\/span>Construction of the Rio Claro Reservoir System, built in Sales\u00f3polis in 1936 to increase the water supplySABESP archives<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The water supply became a serious social problem in the S\u00e3o Paulo capital city in the final 30 years of the 19th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 The solution in 1877 was to establish the Companhia Cantareira de \u00c1gua e Esgoto\u2014taken over by the state in 1892.\u00a0 In the 20th<\/sup> century, reservoir systems were built to increase the supply, and included such projects as the Rio Claro (in the 1930s and 1940s), the Alto Tiet\u00ea, and the new Cantareira (both from the 1970s).<\/p>\n

\u201cTo prevent a water shortage, long-term structural steps are needed, such as rezoning of both the urban and regional territory, starting with the construction of additional water infrastructure,\u201d says Toledo.\u00a0 Previously limited to the little province of 19th<\/sup> century S\u00e3o Paulo, planning now must involve the entire S\u00e3o Paulo Macrometropolis, which encompasses 180 municipalities\u2014including the capital city\u2014and is home to 31 million people.\u00a0 A Master Plan for Use of the Hydric Resources was adopted for the S\u00e3o Paulo Macrometropolis and the final reports were ready in October 2013.\u00a0 The study points out the need to develop new water capture systems and reservoirs, better control water losses, encourage rational use of water, and find ways to reuse it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Other droughts in S\u00e3o Paulo were almost always related to population increase","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[200,241],"coauthors":[104],"class_list":["post-158789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retrospect","tag-environment","tag-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158789"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=158789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}