ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Children, Women Lead Effort to Save Rivers

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava(Tierramérica*)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 24 2001 (IPS) - Women and schoolchildren represent hope for recuperating life in the contaminated rivers of the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, a city in southern Brazil, say local leaders.

The students are highly aware of the need to clean up the Feijó, a 25-km river that is the recipient of sewage, garbage and even large waste items like sofas and refrigerators, says Vera Lucia Oliveira, principal of a primary school located on the banks of the river.

Women are the most active participants in the meetings and take on greatest responsibility in community leadership for a programme aimed at solving the environmental and social problems that have evolved along the rivers of Porto Alegre, said sociologist Jorge Branco, who heads the Metropolitan and Regional Planning Foundation (Metroplan).

Metroplan, a division of the state government of Rio Grande do Sul – whose capital is Porto Alegre -, last year launched the Integrated Programme for the Recovery of Degraded Areas, financed by SEMA (Secretariat of Environmental Management), involving three rivers in the east and north of the Porto Alegre metropolitan area.

The Feijó, a tributary of the Gravataí River, which supplies water to several cities, is the most populous river basin, with 170,000 inhabitants over 57 square km, covering parts of the Porto Alegre, Alvorada and Viamao municipalities.

Environmental education is key to this programme, which also involves five other activities: dredging, urbanisation, recycling, transport, and the creation of jobs and alternative sources of income.

The population uses the river as a dump for “anything that is no longer useful,” from furniture to tires and all kinds of contaminants, as well has damaging the river banks, says Oliveira, who heads the Villa Augusta Meneghini school, in a ‘favela’ (slum neighbourhood) in Viamao.

The school’s 300 first to fourth grade students plant trees, paint bridges, learn to recycle waste and to plant gardens – and to lead rallies in defence of the river and the environment in general.

At first, youths and adults from the neighbourhood would destroy the recently-planted trees, “but they are beginning to respect them,” and even though people continue to dump garbage into the river, it is less and less each day, says the principal, who is excited that “other schools are joining the movement.”

Grassroots participation is an essential factor for the efforts to recover the urban rivers. The strategy is to promote “maximum effectiveness of the investments made,” co-ordinating the work of state and municipal institutions, universities, private companies and communities, explained Metroplan’s Branco.

The people living along the riverbanks are poor, which underscores the need to reduce solid waste, set up work co-operatives and find ways to create income, he said. Efforts also include improving housing, urbanisation and access to public transport.

The management model for the Feijó, Pampa and Sapucaia rivers will be expanded next year to four other areas, covering a total of 700,000 inhabitants in 17 municipalities, said Branco.

The programme has the support of Teodomiro Fernandes, a retired metalworker who heads the Gravataí Valley Nature Protection Association.

However, he says, “while intentions are good, a great deal still must be done,” pointing out that the dredging of the Feijó has been suspended due to the incompetence of the company contracted to do the work.

Metroplan expects to reinitiate the dredging project this year, but Fernandes, who is also a member of the Gravataí committee, fears the efforts will be delayed by legal actions.

He does admit, nevertheless, that the focus of the initiative is promising because it concentrates on each river basin and encourages the participation of neighbourhood committees so that anyone who is interested can get involved.

* Tierramérica is a specialised news service (www.tierramerica.net) produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.