River Tiete by Ralph Genang Solutions GmbH

RIVER TIETÊ

River of Life Source to Mouth . The Tietê, which means “mighty river” in the Tupi language, is a Brazilian river that crosses both the state and the city of São Paulo from east to west. The source, marked by a plaque (see left), springs from rocks that surround a tiny lake in the Parque Nascentes do Tietê, in the town of Salesópolis, 125km from the city of São Paulo. The water flows from three different points and the lake is home to tiny fish known as guarus. Nowadays, the spring water is pumped to fountains where visitors may drink it. The source is on the western hills of the Serra do Mar at a height of 1,027m above sea level. Although at this point it is only 22km from the coast, the stream doesn’t make it over the steep peaks to reach the sea. Instead, and contrary to most rivers, the River Tietê flows inland. The Tietê enters São Paulo’s metropolitan area from the northeast and exits at its northwest extremity. The river is canalized through most of its passage through this, one of Brazil’s most populous and industrialized cities, and is contaminated with tons of rubbish and sewage. It is further polluted by the tributaries, such as the Pinheiros, that join it. Beyond São Paulo the river flows over volcanic rocks as it descends the hills of Serra do Tabuleiro and Serra de Botucatu. The gathering volume of water and its turbulence over waterfalls and rapids help to aerate the water and reduce its pollution levels. At the city of Barra Bonita the river is now clean enough to sustain fish and from here, the river is navigable along most of the rest of its course to the border between the states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. At this point, the Tietê flows into the Paraná River and from there into the lake of the Jupiá Dam.

River Tietê was compiled by Adrian Evans in 2008 Rivers of the World is a Thames Festival project delivered in partnership with the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms with support from HSBC Global Education Programme www.riversoftheworld.org

RIVER TIETÊ

Polluted River Open Sewer Of course, the Tietê wasn’t always polluted. In the 1920s and 1930s, it was used for fishing and other sports activities and right up to the 1960s the river had fish even in the state capital stretch. But all this had changed by the early 1970s. From the 1940s São Paulo experienced a population explosion. City dwellers tripled in 30 years from two to six million inhabitants. An unsophisticated sewage infrastructure meant that both raw sewage and, as more houses and roads were built, brown water runoff from streets too, went untreated into the Tietê. In the 1950s and 60s sections of the Tietê were straightened, much of the urban stretch was canalized and then highways were constructed along its banks effectively cutting the river off from the surrounding population. Prevailing government policies encouraged fast industrial expansion with no check or limitation on environmental impact. The consequence was river pollution on a huge scale. The Tietê’s tributaries, such as the Tamanduateí and Aricanduva, made matters worse by feeding contaminated waste from São Paulo’s outlying industrial estates into the main stream. The Tietê rapidly ceased to be both city’s water supply and a location for any leisure activity. In the 1990s, with its population numbering some 14 million, 90% of the City of São Paulo had sewer pipes to collect and carry away the wastewater but almost all of it went, untreated, into the Tietê. This made the Tietê one of the most polluted rivers in the world. In September 1990, São Paulo’s Rádio Eldorado made a special live show in partnership with the BBC in London. In the programme, two reporters traveled on their city’s river. Rádio Eldorado sailed on the Tietê making comments on the pollution and decay of its waters; the BBC traveled on the clear and unpolluted waters of the Thames and talked of the river’s successful clear-up since it was declared ‘biologically dead’ in the 1960s. This radio program had a huge impact on other media, particularly on the city’s principal newspaper "O Estado de S. Paulo", which launched a campaign to clean the river. Together with a charity called Pro-Tietê Union they successfully channeled popular support and collected over one million signatures demanding a clean up of the river in one of the largest petitions ever made in the country. Faced by such popular pressure, in 1991, the Governor of the State of São Paulo ordered the state’s sanitation company to set up a programme, called Project Tietê, to clean the river.

RIVER TIETÊ

Polluted River Tietê Project Started in 1991, the Tietê Project is one of the largest environmental projects in Latin America. The aim is to collect and treat sewer from about 18 million people in São Paulo’s metropolitan region, improving environmental conditions and public health. The knock-on effect is that it will reduce the disposal of pollutants into streams and improve water quality in the Tietê. The emphasis is on changing people’s habits – not to throw garbage on the streets, to remove solid waste/garbage with efficient waste pickup, not to allow soil erosion to contaminate streams, to treat all wastewater, and not let any untreated waste enter the Tietê. The current technological solution to this problem involves the construction of large interceptor sewer pipes, 3 to 5 feet in diameter, on both sides of the Tietê and the Pinheiros (see photo on the left). These collect the raw wastewater that currently goes directly to these rivers and pumps it to treatment plants. The Tietê Project has been divided into two phases, the first of which started in 1992 and was completed in 1998. The results achieved in this first phase were excellent. Sewage collection rates went up from 70% in 1994 to 79% in 2001. Treatment rates increased from 24% to 65% over the same period of time. The stretch of river that is polluted has been reduced and fish can be found again in locations that were completely dead before. A second phase is theoretically still in progress, although it was scheduled to be completed by 2005. Another 400,000 households have been connected to the sewerage system, resulting in wastewater collection services that will be available to 82% of all inhabitants in the metropolitan region of São Paulo. It is expected that the program will reach at least 90% by its end. The program also focuses on industries within the vicinity of the river. At present 1,200 industries have agreed not to discharge their waste into the river and this corresponds to 90% of all industrial pollution. Since the beginning of the program in 1992, 1.5 billion US dollars has been spent on the Tietê Project. However, according to experts on environmental sanitation and engineering, despite all this investment, the Tietê will continue to be polluted by acid rain, dust, rubbish and vehicle waste that goes into rainwater gulleys untreated, because these are not connected to the sewer network.

RIVER TIETÊ

Polluted River Acid snow Unfortunately, work done as part of the Tietê Project has not been enough, and even a casual glimpse at the Tietê today shows that the metropolitan stretch of the river is clogged with floating rubbish and the foul stench it gives off in the summer heat tells of greater contamination beneath the surface. No one is suggesting that the Tietê is clean. Far from it. One example of the putrid state it is in not only excited the national newspapers, it becane a story that was broadcast internationally. In July 2003, a town on the Tietê downriver of São Paulo appeared to be snowed in (see photograph on the left). But snow in Brazil? Upon closer inspection, this ‘snow’ was a thick layer of foam, foam that emitted an evil, noxious smell. Locals reported that the foam had been affecting the town of Pirapora do Bom Jesus for about a month and that recently it had risen especially high, blocking bridges across the river Tietê and encroaching into nearby streets too. The press had a field day. The national television station showed footage of the foam lying like snow, blowing in the wind and sticking to roofs and television antennae. International media showed images of cars unable to cross the bridges early in the morning, and a bus forcing its way through the white foam that practically covered its body. State officials have yet to come up with a solution to the problem, which is caused when the waters of the Tietê, contaminated with detergents and other chemical agents, are churned up as it passes through a hydroelectric plant just upriver.

RIVER TIETÊ

Resourceful River Flooding In addition to the pollution problem, the Tietê River is also famous for its floods. In the 1960s, developers straightened some stretches of the meandering Tietê. The marshy side areas of the river channel were incorporated into a landscape with raised levees both to contain the rising flood waters and also to provide a platform for busy arterial roads (see left). However, São Paulo has expanded at a staggering rate, with the population increasing from 6 million in the 1960s to 17.5 million in the greater metropolitan area today. As São Paulo has grown, so the amount of land now under tarmac, concrete and other impermeable surfaces has increased. These days, when it rains in São Paulo very little water is actually absorbed into the landscape. The majority of it runs off into sewage pipes and from there, goes untreated into the river. Sustained heavy rainfall fills the Tietê’s tributaries and consequently the water level in the main river rises rapidly and occasionally overflows. City planners had thought that these rising waters would be contained within the man-made levees. However, the huge volumes of rubbish that is thrown into the Tietê has attracted increased silt deposits and the combined effect of pollution and river mud has raised the river bed. The river bed is occasionally dredged. But unfortunately corrupt and unscrupulous contractors have exacerbated the problem. Dredging boats have been removing debris from the riverbed and then dumping it a few kilometers downstream in the marshy side areas beside the river. Squatters have also been settling illegally in these riverside areas further reducing its capacity to absorb flood waters. Fortunately, city officials have recently taken drastic action. They are attempting to solve the problem by increasing the depth of the riverbed using explosives, underwater drilling and dredging and then taking this off to landfill sites. As a result, between 2001 and 2004, the Tietê was flood-free. But on 25 May 2005, the secondlargest rainfall since 1943 struck and the area flooded. The solution, currently under construction, is to double the width of the Tietê along a 15 mile stretch to about 140 feet wide and also to deepen the channel by an average of 8 feet. Experts expect this to solve the metropolitan region's flooding problems for the next hundred years.

RIVER TIETÊ

Working River Coffee and Sugar According to archeologists, populations have used the Tietê basin for at least six thousand years and for most of this time it has been used as a means of communication and as a transport artery. Coffee was introduced in Brazil in 1727 and the crop flourished. The Tietê’s importance grew in the nineteenth century when coffee became Brazil’s major source of wealth because its use as a transportation channel to transport the crop made São Paulo the leading coffee producing center in the country. Coffee was shipped abroad from the port of the neighbouring city of Santos. Today, Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer. Since the Spanish conquistadors first introduced the crop, Brazil has always been a major sugar cane producer (left). These days, this crop is seen as being increasingly important in the provision of biofuels for use in cars and other vehicles and vast tracts of land are being turned over to sugar cane plantations. Brazil is the world’s largest grower of sugar cane by a long margin, and the state of São Paulo provides 60% of the county’s crop. The Tietê, with its source just 125km from São Paulo, is still a modest river when it traverses that great metropolis. Inland however it becomes a substantial water course and is navigable for about 450km over its lower reaches before it joins the Paraná at the artificial lake behind the Jupiá Dam. The Tietê has nine hydroelectric dams along its course, the earliest of which was built in the 1920s. Most have installed locks or floodgate systems to make navigation possible on the river. One unforeseen problem of these dams is the increased numbers of piranha in the area. Dams slow the flow of rivers, and cause an increase in piranha numbers because the fish favour gentle stretches of water for breeding. Over the years, numerous stories of people being attacked and eaten by ferocious schools of piranhas have surfaced. The Tietê-Paraná waterway allows navigation along 1,100km between the city of Conchas on the Tietê, and São Simão on the Paranaíba, and then on to ltaipu, adding up 2,400km of navigable water. Transport by water offers a cheaper alternative to road haulage and these waterways carry over one million tons of grain per year. There have been lively debates about the creation of a network of waterways linking four countries, including landlocked Bolivia and Paraguay, back via the Tietê to the continent’s economic powerhouse of São Paulo. If the politicians co-operated then such a scheme might easily be achieved.

RIVER TIETÊ

River City São Paulo The city of São Paulo, Brazil was founded in 1554. In 1681, São Paulo became the seat of the regional government and by 1711 it was constituted a municipality by the King of Portugal. Economic growth began with coffee production and textiles around 1850; industrial manufacturing became significant in 1900 and, with the production of cars in the 1950s, São Paulo became one of the most important cities in the world. Today, São Paulo is the business, financial and industrial centre of Brazil, accounting for 30-40% of the gross domestic product of the country. It is the largest city in South America and has a population in excess of 17 million people. São Paulo was founded as São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga by Jesuit priests. The name means 'the fields of Piratininga' (the Tupi/Guarani name for the region). The mission of São Paulo was built as an outpost, a starting point for settlers and priests to colonize and Christianize the interior of the continent. At the time the mission was founded, little was known about the interior of the continent. A vast sub-tropical forest and the relatively inaccessible plateau (some 10km inland from the shore) hindered extensive expeditions. The mission of São Paulo was erected at the top of the plateau, on the banks of the Tietê. The river was the gateway to exploring the interior. The Paulistas, as the people of São Paulo are known, are very proud of their city. This melting of the Brazilian culture (a mix between Portuguese and African) with other cultures (mainly Italian and Japanese, who emigrated around 1900) results in a unique cultural flavour. The industrial boom in the 1950s was responsible for the start of a city-wide obsession with skyscrapers. It has made the city very rich, offering high-level cultural events, museums and libraries. Wealthy people live in satellite towns in well-protected villas, and fly in with their private helicopters. São Paulo is known for the highest helicopter traffic in the world. São Paulo has always had a disproportionate number of people living in poverty. After the 1950s boom, internal migration to the city caused the slums to increase in size. During the years that Brazil suffered under a military dictatorship (1965 1984), money became concentrated in an ever-shrinking percentage of the population. This trend continued into the mid-1990s, and has not improved since. Along with the pollution and the increasing poverty and violence, the beautiful aspects of the city are rapidly deteriorating.

RIVER TIETÊ

River Culture River Art Today, on the riverbanks, one can see long lines of cars in a sea of lights moving at an average speed of 22km/h at rush hour. This is considerably slower than the speed of the animal-powered tramways that São Paulo knew so many years ago. As late as the mid-20th century, the Tietê hosted popular rowing and swimming competitions (explaining the oars on the emblem of the soccer club, Corinthians), but in recent years the only recorded swimmers have been criminals fleeing the police. These days, the Tietê is often portrayed in culture and in the arts as a symbol of the decay in the quality of life in São Paulo. The river features in a series of graphic books called Piratas do Tietê, by cartoon artist Laerte. In the series, bloodthirsty pirates sail on the Tietê, causing chaos in the city. Among the characters there’s a reference to the alligator found a few years ago in the river (most likely abandoned by its owner). In real life, this famous alligator was named Stubborn, because it constantly slipped through the hands of the rescue team (in the end, it was rescued by the Fire Brigade and can now be found at São Paulo Zoo). In 2008, the Tietê became a catwalk for a fashion show presented at the Autumn/Winter edition of the São Paulo Fashion Week. Ever the provocateur, the designer Cavalera took the fashion pack beyond their comfort zone by herding them down the murky River Tietê and onto a derelict boat where they were issued with gas masks and protective plastic gear. The boat then floated downriver to a derelict site to see models show Cavalera’s cheeky brand of colourful street couture (see left). In 2006, the Tietê was used as a site-specific location for a theatre production called BR3 by Teatro da Vertigem. The audience was taken on a 2-storey barge from which they followed the scenes that took place on the river, on the banks and on little support boats. Vertigen considered São Paulo’s filthy, stinking River Tietê to be the perfect venue for a play about the bleak life of a poor working family. “The city’s relationship to the river is one of aversion. They want to pass fast and ignore it. But the river shows the dirt we produce,” said actor Sergio Siviero. “We tell a story about an unknown Brazil in an unknown place.” The theatre group, which has previously staged plays in an abandoned hospital and a prison, took measures to keep the crew healthy, including vaccinations for hepatitis, malaria and tetanus. But one crew member fell into the river at the end of the play. “It was so disgusting,” said audience member Mariana Galante, 25. “The guy stayed there, under the water, for a few seconds, and then appeared again looking stunned. But apart from that, it was an amazing experience.”