Pollution in Brazil

The silvery Tietê

Cleaning up an open sewer

See article

Readers' comments



Controlling pollution in poverty stricken areas is hard to do because the people are unwilling to pay for sewage, and sometimes a sewage system is not even available. Untreated sewage can destroy a beautiful river, and make the sight and smell of the river unbearable. Sewage pollution is a serious problem in areas with big cities with many people cluttered into a small space. Cleaning up the water in this river should be made a priority of the government. Water quality should be a major concern for these people, and they should want to reclaim the river for recreational activities in the future.


Although I am not too familiar with this region, this is a very interesting article. I think it is very good that they are pushing to clean up this river. However as stated in the article, even if they clean the river, they have people who either will not or cannot connect to the sewer system. This is another problem that they really need to address if they truly wish to fix the problem.


Tiete is a huge part of Sao Paulo. Currently it it is disgusting to many of the senses. It smells, it looks gross, it probably even feels gross considering all of the pollution in the river. It is a very good thing that Sao Paulo is taking charge and changing the Tiete river for the better. Anything within a city, or country, or town reflects directly on the city/country/town itself. The Tiete river, being as gross and bad as it is, makes Sao Paulo and all the cities surrounding look as if they are also gross and bad. So changing the Tiete for the better could be the start of changing a lot more of the bad in Sao Paulo.

Colby J

This is a very good project that Brazil has done. It is great that over the years they can see the advantages and benefits that cleaning up the Tiete has done! It has brought sewer systems to millions of people. Although the geography of Brazil isn't ideal for laying pipes they are making it work and can really turn this pollution problem around. The problem is that many of the people who live in slums can not pay for this kind of water treatment. Overall by the end of this project the quality of life with a clean river will increase.


Evidently something occurred to stop the original project on the Tiete, even though for a while there it sustained through good times and bad. Hopefully if the project were to be renewed, it would really sustain because Brazil is now much wealthier and powerful. Obviously it meant a lot to the government and citizens of Brazil to be kept up for so long. I think they now have the resources and wealth to really get the project moving, once and for all. If they were to reduce the dirtiness, it will add appeal to their country and show that they are powerful to complete major projects like this. This won’t be an easy task though, because some of the issues that are making the river dirty, like slums, are serious problems themselves.


Há alternativas tecnologicamente mais ousadas e economicamente viáveis de despoluição dos sistema. Na década de 80 um engenheiro sanitarista elaborou projeto neste sentido e foi ignorado pelo stabilishment político e do Instituto de Engenharia e boicotado pelas grandes empreiteiras, por sua simplicidade e baixo custo.
Este projeto consistia na instalação ao longo do trecho Metropolitano do Tietê/Pinheiros, de 17 mini-estações de tratamento. Estas injetariam ar para oxigenar a água poluída e teriam detectores de poluentes e reagentes para combatê-los. Dragas coletariam o lodo produzido e que poderia ser utilizado na construção civil pesada.
Simples assim, mais eficiente e barato que o Projeto Tetê, a depender do qual este nosso rio nunca mais verá um só peixinho...wiltonmtelecom@hotmail.com


Brazil, like most other industrialized countries, is dealing with the conflict between money and pollution. Do we make more money, or clean up after ourselves. I think one of the last sentences of this article says if all: " The river’s problems are an expression of the city’s problems—of poverty and environmental degradation." If people used to take pride in this river, i think it is something that should be taken even more seriously. Even in Virginia, citizens are disgusted with the quality of their rivers; enough so that many of us don't even use them for recreation anymore. I think its great that the company Sabesp is making an effort to clean up 100 of the river's tributaries, but I think an even bigger government effort needs to be start in order to actually fix this issue and clean the Tiete.

Pedrao SP

The river is really getting better. In a few years, as it get´s cleaner, it´s gonna be used as a way of transportation, too. Very good news for Sao Paulo, one of the biggest cities in the world!

Pedrao SP

The river is really getting better. In a few years, as it is cleaner, it´s gonna be used as a way of transportation too. Very good news for Sao Paulo, one of the biggest cities in the world!


This is a problem that is seen in many Latin American cities. However, Brazil's economic prosperity is fast advancing the country into a cleaner and safer place. Brazil is fast in the process of development. This is a great thing for South America, since Brazil will be the first stronghold to be developed, and thus, create an example for the rest of the region to go by.


While there are many beautiful and aesthetically pleasing cities within the Brazilian nation, the country still suffers from large amounts of pollution. Having flown into Sao Paulo, in the morning, the smog and fog are a major problem not only to visibility, but they also pose health risks. Many of the large cities in Brazil are sources of major pollution from the industrial and proccessing plants. Furthermore this pollution can lead to consequences such as acid rain, which in turn will simply runoff into rivers or estuaries such as the Tiete (because of the large presence of impermeable surfaces and the waters close proximity to the large cities). I believe this new projeto Tiete is in fact promising in terms of helping to eliminate pollution within the cities, and has shown such success as today 55% of the sewage is treated in Sao Paulo and is expected to rise to 85% treatment by 2018.


I thought it was appropriate to say that the cleaning of this river was comparable to the 'cleaning' of Brazil. Brazil is a powerhouse in South America and is an up and coming nation in the developed world. They are exponentially growing in respect to economy and and ridding themselves of the more poverty stricken aspects of their society. It is only a matter of time before Brazil is more 'clean' and wealthy as it is only a matter of time before the Tietê is once again clean and enjoyable.


This is great to hear for the environment. Especially how successful their actions have been already even through the Brazilian government is going through many financial problems like everyone else. I think it will be interesting to see if their projections of 85% in 2018 can be achieved in their current economic condition.


This article has some startling implications. It informs us that the river pollution used to extend to Barra Bonita, 260km downstream from Sao Paulo, now to Salto, 100km downstream. Furthermore that Sao Paulo is just 75km from the river's source. Trying to make sense of the accompanying map, this suggests that the Atlantic is discharging deep into Brazil's hinterland. If so, we would surely have heard about this before now.

Presumably, all this comes about through a certain loss in translation (from the Portuguese?). If so, it suggests that the ubiquitous spellchecker is not a substitute for some intelligent proof-reading.

On a more constructive note, we are told that 'mountain ranges block potential (sewage discharge) pipe routes to the sea. Why not follow the route of the river? Or does that go up down mountains too?

mises ghost

"São Paulo is just 75km from the river’s source, so there is less water to dilute what it discharges. Mountain ranges block potential pipe routes to the sea."

actually a britsh company usead this "mointain range" and the 800 meters of altitude to divert most of the water of the tiete for a hydroelectic project some 100 years ago...

if anyone really wans to see pollution drive from sao pauo to santos, you will se a huge area were for decades no trees grew- this old petrochemical complex really had an astonishing effect. average lifetime was 45years...

the tiete is an eye sore, but it certainly is not a river in sao paulo, rather a open ewer drainage- with the heavie rains it inevitably flows over and blocks some of the main traffic arterias of the city, problems in rio are bigger but less smelly :-))

rather than 13 millions some 30 millions live in the basin area- with all the squatters from the north east invariably infrastructure is overtaxed (during heavy draughts in the north thousands of refugees come to the city daily)

it seems as if the approach in peru planned pueblos chovenes where roads and infrastructure is are installed before the settlers take their lots is rather efficient- it costs a lot more to provide infrastrucure ex post than ex ante....

patrick veale

Chris418 is right. I remember the favelas on the Tiete river back in the 1960s, and of course the sewage problem. Add to that the industrial pollution, and you have an unhealthy river. In the early seventies a book was published by the Archdiocese called, The Development of Underdevelopment. I take it from this article that the mighty growth of slums has accompanied the growth of the middle class and wealth in Sao Paulo. Unfortunately this combo can be seen in India, China, Thailand, and even in the United States which is now experiencing an increase in the size of its underclass. As wealth becomes more and more appropriated by the 1% in the US (who knows what per cent in a world wide survey),and as the world's population grows, mostly due to the birth rate of the underclass, a major long term problem appears on the 21st century horizon. The discussion of Tiete's tragic pollution is just the other side of the issue of underdevelopment.


Brazil has come a long way in effort to clean up São Paulo’s Tietê since 1992 when the project was started. It is not until recently that people are starting to understand the importance of this pollution in the river and the effects is causes on its surrounding because hardly any serious cleaning efforts were made until recently. The fact this this river pollution is so bad negatively reflects on the city. This outlines poverty and environmental degradation. More cleaning efforts of the Tietê will be the first step towards reshaping the whole city. Eliminating slums throughout the city is a must as well with the growing population. If this is not handled, poverty will increase regardless of the Tietê river's condition. Although cleaning up the river is important, Brazil needs to attack the main problem of poverty, like chris418 mentions, and the situation will already be better for the city and its people.


Cleaning up the river seems like a step in the right direction for Brazilian infrastructure, but unfortunately it looks much better on paper than in person. This plan has been effect for around 20 years now, but no improvement has been made so far, in fact, some say the river has gotten worse since. The poverty issue in Brazil is a driving force behind this 'sewer' of a river, and the cities need some major cleaning themselves. The article says that many have to be forcibly moved from their settlings around the river. These people are living in filth and with the disgusting smell of the river, simply because they have nowhere else to go. That is a real showing of how the percent of Brazilians in poverty is huge.
Sadly, the rate at which people dump trash into the river and sewage seeps into it is drastically higher than the rate at which the river is being cleaned out. This means that it is not likely to be a change in the state of the river for the better in some time.


The state of the Tiete river reflects on the overall state of poverty problems in Brazil. Since the clean up campaign has been in affect for 20 years and has had influence on cleaning up the river, it appears that this approach won't be effective. I can't imagine the pollution situation improving without improving the situation in the cities especially the poverty ridden cities. In my opinion, the aim of the campaign should be to clean up the cities and overall living conditions. Once these conditions are improved then the focus can be placed on the conditions of the Tiete river and other environmental projects.



Products and events


Take our weekly news quiz to stay on top of the headlines

