Amazon: communities do not have drinking water

Text and photos: Leonardo Milano Forgotten by the government, thousands of families in western Pará have been counting on humanitarian aid from civil society organizations, which have been distributing filters made with nanotechnology in riverside communities. Thousands of families live where the muddy waters of the Amazon meet the greenish waters of the mighty Tapajós, in houses adapted to the great seasonal variations in the water levels of these imposing rivers. The region is locally called “várzea”, a complex and rich ecosystem, abundant in fish and fertile soil, suitable for family farming. Under the soil of western Pará, there is the largest freshwater aquifer - in volume - in the world, called the Alter do Chão Aquifer. Ironically, this enormous abundance of water is either not accessible or is not suitable for human consumption. The waters of the region carry large quantities of sediments and pollutants, such as mercury, sewage, animal remains and waste, among others. With the arrival of the rainy season, the quality of the water worsens, as the rains carry more sediments and pollutants to the rivers and lakes. During the dry season, which has been greatly aggravated in the Amazon by climate change, the difficulty of accessing drinking water increases drastically and, in some communities, it is necessary to travel more than five kilometers to reach a body of water, which is almost always unfit for human consumption, without proper treatment. Filters with nanotechnology Imported from China by the NGO Projeto Saúde e Alegria (PSA), in partnership with other local civil society organizations, the filters have been delivered to riverside communities in the lower Amazon through complex logistics, which involves the use of vessels of different sizes, to take the Chinese technology to the communities spread across a labyrinth of islands, lakes and tributaries. Many of the communities are not close to the banks of navigable rivers. Sometimes it is necessary to unload the filter kits in distant locations, and transport them to the communities on foot, by ox-drawn cart, or in a poorly maintained motorized vehicle. The intense heat, mud, sand, rocks and the lack of adequate means of transportation make travel very difficult. Deliveries of the filters are always scheduled in advance with community leaders, and when the team responsible for the filters arrives, the families are already waiting to receive them. Each family receives a kit containing the filter, a small hose, a reservoir that stores the water that will be filtered, and a syringe for internal hygiene of the product. Along with the kit, the families receive instructions on how to use and maintain the filters. To date, approximately 3,500 people have benefited from the filters in the lower Amazon alone. The goal is to distribute 5,000 filters in this region. Munduruku indigenous people affected by illegal gold mining in the middle Tapajós, riverside communities near Belém-PA, and even people affected by the 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul have also benefited from the nanotechnology filters. According to the PSA, in almost three years of operation, 5,900 filters have already been distributed, including all regions where the NGO operates. Ana Costa, an Amazonian born in a community in the region, is a field technician for the PSA and is responsible for making deliveries to the communities in the Lower Amazon, in addition to explaining how to use the filters to the families. Organized, focused and knowledgeable about the local reality, Ana knows how to communicate informally and warmly with families in situations of water vulnerability. The PSA technician says that she spent her childhood carrying buckets of water on her head in Maripá, a community located on the left bank of the Tapajós River, where she was born. “Learning about the life stories of these people strengthens me and inspires me to continue seeking support solutions. I spent my childhood carrying buckets of water on my head, and I know exactly what it is like to live in a region surrounded by fresh water, but have so little access to drinking water” (Ana Costa) “The Ministry of Health (MS), through Technical Note No. 68/2024, recognized the filters that we are distributing in the communities as effective in treating water for human consumption. There is no similar technology in Brazil yet, and it requires long import processes” (Jussara Salgado, Coordinator of the Community Infrastructure Program of the PSA) Effectiveness and limitations of filters The NGO responsible for the delivery states that one of the advantages of the filters is that they do not require electrical energy to operate, as they only use the force of gravity or manual pressure from plastic bottles containing the water to be filtered. Inside the device, there are polysulfone membranes - a polymer that can withstand high temperatures - that filter particles as small as 0.02 micrometers, and are 99.9% effective in retaining viruses, bacteria and impurities in the water. To give you an idea, a bacterium such as Escherichia coli, present in the feces of people and other animals, is around 0.50 micrometers. The filters have proven to be efficient in remote locations, capable of making contaminated water drinkable in places that do not have water treatment. Ana Costa, when talking about filter maintenance for communities, explains that, according to the manufacturer, each filter lasts up to five years, but the PSA technician warns that this validity does not take into account the amount of sediment that exists in many rivers in the Amazon, and that it is necessary to clean the filter internally after each bucket of water filtered. “Filters are not a definitive solution to the lack of drinking water, but they can be another option to help minimize the effects of the extreme drought that is ravaging communities. The technology exists, what is missing is for municipal, state and federal public authorities to embrace the idea. The Ministry of Health has already declared that filters are effective”, (Ana Costa) Diarrhea According to data from the Pará State Health Department (SESPA), in the first quarter of 2024, more than 9 thousand cases of diarrhea were registered in Western Pará, an increase of 13% compared to the same period in 2023. Children and the elderly are the most affected. In most communities served by the filter distribution campaign, there are frequent reports of diarrhea, especially in children. Community members claim that poor-quality water is responsible for these cases. A study conducted by the Water and Sanitation Institute indicates that, in Santarém, almost 170,000 residents do not have access to water provided by the local government, which represents more than 50% of the city's population, which is 331,942 inhabitants (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics IBGE, 2022). More than 90% of the population does not have access to sewage treatment. For Caetano Scannavino, PSA coordinator and an environmentalist with almost 40 years of experience in Western Pará, the health challenges in the Amazon are enormous, and government representatives need to be more proactive in seeking partnerships that bring effective solutions to the population's problems. The environmentalist emphasizes that civil society organizations do not intend to replace the State, which is constitutionally responsible for taking measures to ensure that the population has access to quality water. “As a civil society, we try to help, but priority attention is needed, with emergency measures from governments, to scale these solutions and technologies to a much larger number of families. Any initiative in this sense will have our full support” (Caetano Scannavino) Regarding nanotechnology filters, Caetano states that they are a low-cost solution that brings immediate results and pays for themselves by reducing public health spending by treating preventable diseases. In fact, according to the IBGE, the northern region of Brazil has the highest infant mortality rates in the country, and a large part of these deaths are caused by the lack of basic sanitation and access to drinking water, problems that are aggravated by the climate crisis we are experiencing. For the environmentalist, the northern region of Brazil, with its serious problems, does not receive the same attention as other regions of the country, and those who suffer most from extreme climate change are those who have contributed least. “The country has stopped flooding in the South, but we have not seen the same attention and mobilization in the North. Droughts and floods are part of the annual Amazon cycle. The problem is that extreme phenomena are becoming more frequent. It is sad to see that those who have contributed least to this are the ones who suffer the most. It is difficult to explain to Brazilian society that riverside dwellers are experiencing water stress in the largest freshwater basin in the world. But it is the reality, the Amazon is thirsty.” (Caetano Scannavino)

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Leonardo Milano@leonardo-milano

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