Despite some much-needed rains in recent days, Brazil’s Jaguari reservoir, which supplies water to the nation’s two biggest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, has fallen to its lowest level ever. Measurement posts have been laid bare and jut out from exposed earth “like a line of dominoes.”
Sao Paulo state leaders want to tap more water from Jaguari, which is Rio’s main source of water. This has led to a major conflict between the two cities. Rio says, “NO MORE WATER!”
While Rio has thus far remained only slightly affected by the parching drought, which has damaged coffee, citrus, sugar and other crops, the residents of Sao Paulo have been without water “at least once every 30 days or so.”
Even so, Sao Paulo has resisted water restrictions for the most part like much of California in the U.S. has enforced in recent months. Restaurants serve water unless asked not to by their customers. Homeowners can still, unlike in California, water their lawns whenever they like.
Around Sao Paulo’s main financial district, it’s common to see shop owners hosing down sidewalks. Vehicles regularly line up for spots in car washes.
Even though it’s “rained sporadically” during late November and the first half of December in the Sao Paulo area, as soon as the rains stop, the Jaguari reservoir begins to fall again as much of the moisture seeps into the cracked earth. This is very similar to what happens in the parched central valleys of California following a storm system.
Water officials in Sao Paulo are predicting that the city’s water situation will “improve greatly” as the annual rainy season, which runs from late October until mid April, just like California, picks up steam. They don’t foresee having to resort to strict water rationing if the rains persist during the next several months. But, as usual, only time will tell, especially in a normally drier ‘El Nino’ cycle in east-central Brazil.
