Water supply and hydrosocial scarcity in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the water supply systems in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area in the light of the hydrosocial scarcity concept and the human right to water. It also assesses how bulk water availability may aggravate this situation. We argue that water access-related problems are directly related to several aspects: the way that water and sanitation services are managed, deficiencies in planning, technical choices, and the way in which existing systems are operated. In addition to these current structural problems, the vulnerability of supply systems also tends to increase in terms of lesser water availability as long as no changes are made in management processes to promote greater water security, as the 2014-2015 drought affecting the Piracicaba and Paraíba do Sul river basins.

Trace metal dynamics in an industrialized Brazilian river: A combined application of Zn isotopes, geochemical partitioning, and multivariate statistics

“…The Paraiba do Sul (PSR) and Guandu Rivers (GR) water diversion system constitute a complex hydrological feature affected by the main Brazilian industrial park and multiple landuse activities (e.g., industries, farm, irrigation, sand exploitation, water reservoirs, drinking water, and river channelization) (Britto et al, 2016). Since the 1950s, two-thirds of the PSR water is diverted to the GR to supply drinking water for more than 9.4 million inhabitants of the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro (MRRJ) and to furnish raw water to industrial plants (Miguens et al, 2016).…”

Can we take the pulse of environmental governance the way we take the pulse of nature? Applying the Freshwater Health Index in Latin America

“…It was explained that, in particular, residents in Rio municipality typically enjoy reliable access to water services, while residents of the municipalities actually living in Guandu basin experience inferior service. Stakeholders remarked that the FHI as implemented did not seem to capture this discrepancy adequately, particularly for the four municipalities physically located within Guandu basin (Queimados, Paracambi, Japeri, and Nova Iguaçu) that have been subject to curtailed water supplies 2–3 times per week, as a result of switchover operations (Britto et al 2016 ). Finally, stakeholders placed their highest weight on the Vision and Adaptive Governance indicator, and a high weight on the Monitoring and Learning Mechanisms sub-indicator, which actually received the lowest score (19) of the entire governance assessment.…”

Distribution and abundance of freshwater decapods in an Atlantic rainforest catchment with a dammed future

“…Atlantic rainforest streams have been intensely modified by land use changes and engineering actions that aim to increase water supply to agriculture, industry and human consumption. Currently, Rio de Janeiro state government is planning the construction of a dam on the Guapiaçú river (Rio de Janeiro, 2016;Britto et al, 2016), which is an important site to preserve regional biodiversity (Pereira et al, 2012). However, there is little information about aquatic biodiversity of this catchment and virtually no study about biodiversity and distribution patterns of its decapod fauna, which makes it impossible to forecast the effects and to propose actions to minimize the ecological impacts of damming the river.…”