A Reservoir for the Provisioning of the Sao Paulo Metropolis: The Situation of Metropolitan Waters: Fid-Bau Portal

A Reservoir for the Provisioning of the Sao Paulo Metropolis: The Situation of Metropolitan Waters

Goldenstein, Stela

Water supply in a large city such as Sao Paulo faces important challenges. Its widespread industrial and urban growth, particularly after the 1950s, raised several social and environmental conflicts which are clearly reflected by the current conditions of use and availability of water resources. Among these conflicts is the settlement of over one million people of low income, in precarious sanitary conditions, occupying headwater areas protected environmentally by law. These areas are intended to be utilized as catchment areas to assure the supply of water to the majority of the city's 17 million inhabitants. The remainder are covered by water resources supplied by, and drawn from other adjacent highly populated catchment areas, which in turn are also affected by the limiting factor, water, regarding their own industrial and urban development. The reduction of the current water shortage is a highlighted objective of the Government of the State of Sao Paulo, envisaging the provision of large-scale water supply and sewage systems to meet the demands of the population, as well as to recover large, environmentally affected areas. The main purpose in this respect is to implement new policies aimed at changing the scenarios of decades-old unsolved conflicts. To face these problems, the resolution of water use conflicts between different sectors, e.g. water supply versus hydropower generation, is necessary to avoid further detrimental effects to the water quality and the flood control capacity of the Metropolitan area.