Only Time Will Tell

Today was the beginning of our second week in Rio de Janeiro. The day began as usual, unbelievable fruit, breads, bacon, eggs, juices, and more. However normal it may sound, I decided to mix it up, and instead of worrying about sleeping until the last minute possible, I woke up early and went for a walk along Ipanema Beach. Only after one week here, I have discovered that I do my best thinking while walking alone on the beach. This morning, as I was pondering what we would have in store for us today I thought about how calming the beach can be, especially if one is sitting and watching the sunrise. It wasn’t until after our classes and tours that I started to think about what would happen without it all. My first thought was that I wouldn’t be able to pass time on the tranquil beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana. As I continued to think deeper and reflect on what we were presented with today, it really resounded that all of this beauty could be gone. 

We began at PUC with a very insightful Portuguese lesson that focused on vocabulary specific to jobs that are common within the Rio community. The second lecture dealt with environmental issues. Professor José Araruna of PUC spoke about issues in the three geographical divisions of Brazil: the Amazon, urban, and rural areas. Afterward, we went to lunch and boarded the bus for a short ride out to CEDAE (Companhia Estadual de Águas e Esgotos), a water-treatment facility. With 53 employees, a laboratory, three water-treatment stages, and a sludge treatment facility, sewage water is cleaned and released back into Guanabara Bay. The final goal of fully recovering Guanabara Bay is set for 2016, the start of the Olympic Games. Currently, CEDAE is operating at about 50% of its available capacity. As soon as the system is ready to double, it would be treating 5000 liters of water per second while it would serve 3 million people. 

Each stage, within the treatment process, has different parts that are quite complicated to understand, that is, without a degree in environmental engineering. However, we were given a much simpler version. The first stage is known as pre-treatment. In this stage, large pieces of trash are filtered out by skinny metal bars spaced at 10 cm apart. All of the trash that is filtered out in this process is brought to a “cemetery” of trash or landfill. The second is known as the primary step in which sand is used to filter out more impurities through the bars. The final treatment step is the sludge stage in which agitation is used to separate water and dirt. The dirt is what becomes known as sludge. After passing through all of the treatment phases and passing the government regulations, this water is being released into Guanabara Bay. In the future, CEDAE hopes to eliminate the release of water into the bay by instead using the treated water for industrial purposes. 

It is important to realize that water is not a resource that we cannot go without recycling and treating; it is essential in our lives. In the future, more goals should be set to guide leaders to pursue the best actions needed for progress. Just as the millennium goals were set and Brazil strived for success, the new Rio+20 goals should make for an interesting future. Many goals were identified during the conference. These goals were identified in seven main categories: decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture,  water, oceans and disaster readiness. Only time will tell whether or not the goals proved to be successful.

Scale model of the CEDAE water-treatment facility we visited.

Molly Moberg