$10.5 bn needed to guarantee drinking water: Brazilian agency

BRASILIA - Brazil must invest some $10.5 billion in production and distribution systems for potable water by the year 2015 to guarantee this service to its population, a government agency has reported.

The Urban Water Supply Atlas Wednesday said that “potential problems” exist in 2,965 of the country’s 5,563 municipalities, and that is where the investment must be concentrated with an eye toward preventing “a possible collapse of the water supply”.

A document, prepared by the National Water Agency, says that - in addition - $23 billion in additional investment would be needed for the construction of sewage networks in the towns.

The head of the agency, Jose Machado, proposed the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee that, on the basis of the report, would work on developing projects along with local governments to “guarantee the supply of water in the country’s large urban centres”.

Machado said at a press conference that currently the average demand for water in Brazil’s main cities is about 356 cubic meters per second, and the production capacity in those urban centres is 352 cubic meters per second, on an average.

“That shows that the productive units are already working overtime or inadequately,” he said.

The National Water Agency says the most critical situations are in Brazil’s impoverished northeast, which suffers from intense annual droughts, and in the most populous and prosperous states in the south, where most of the country’s population is concentrated.

–EFE