Rio's Rocinha favela resident Daiane Nunes hikes uphill to a woodland water source. She and other people fill bottles in a little stream. The chlorine in our piped water makes it unfit for consumption. This is our only chance to acquire natural water besides buying it, said Nunes, 33.
Worldwide, poor, non-white populations face water shortages that worsen as temperatures rise. Luana Pretto, executive president of the Treat Brazil Institute, a think tank that promotes basic sanitation and water resource protection, said Brazilian governments and municipalities must design water distribution plans, calculate prices, and choose the best management methods.
Before World Water Day on Friday, Rio residents gathered in a hotel conference room to tell their water access tales. Jardim Gramacho, next to Latin America's largest dump until 2012, had intermittent water. Fatima Monteiro, a community health agent with high blood pressure, was distressed since heat waves increase her risk of blackouts and fainting. She dug a makeshift well.
I had to. I didn't know how to live without water," conference attendee Monteiro remarked. In order to avoid landfill runoff pollution, she only uses well water for cooking and washing. Days following Benevides' death, City Hall declared 150 health post places where dehydrated persons might receive saline solution to combat heat waves.
The Waters of Rio concessionaire provided water to the Sambadrome, where heavy-costumed dancers parade with huge floats, during Carnival in February. The company distributed water to paradegoers before they entered the route and after an hour of steamy activity. Authorities have made mistakes when addressing the issue.
Soccer fans were denied entry to Maracana stadium with water bottles before the game last Sunday, when the heat index reached 62.3 degrees Celsius. Brazil's justice ministry challenged Maracana's administrators' compliance with the regulation established after Swift's November appearance.
Rio added free water dispensers. As summer winds down, only one has been erected in rich Ipanema, and it is not working as well as desired. An Associated Press reporter helped youngsters use the dispenser, which required scanning a QR code and filling out an online form, in the heat Wednesday. Water was unavailable to a man without a telephone.
Beray Armond appreciated Rio's early water efforts but is waiting to see if the proposed measures are passed. “If you don't have legislation that forces public or private entities to distribute water, you're basically condemning your population to illness or death,” Beray Armond said. “We need to improve, but it's better than when we had nothing.”
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