{"id":483,"date":"2016-08-10T15:46:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T15:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/?p=483"},"modified":"2016-08-30T11:50:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T11:50:05","slug":"come-rain-or-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/2016\/08\/10\/come-rain-or-shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Come rain or shine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Catherine Barbour<\/h1>\n

Online MSc Carbon Management 2015-2016<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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Brazilians lack the British obsession with weather.\u00a0 I often start conversations by commenting on how sunny it is, only to remember that\u00a0every<\/em> day is sunny in Brasilia.\u00a0 Talking about water is perhaps the closest equivalent. Most Brazilians have an opinion on the subject \u2013 whether about the standing water that breeds zika- and dengue-spreading mosquitoes, regional droughts, or poor sanitation.<\/p>\n

The subject hit the international headlines last year when Sao Paulo, a city of 20 million people, nearly ran out<\/a> of water.\u00a0 By the end of the dry season in September, the city\u2019s main reservoir was running on dregs, or \u201cvolume morto\u201d.\u00a0 Water pressure was reduced and poor households frequently went hours without supply.\u00a0 Thankfully, reserves have risen since then and the worst crisis was avoided. A strong El Nino<\/a> has helped here (though not in southern states and nearby Uruguay and Paraguay, where 150,000 people were displaced by Christmas floods). Experts think Sao Paulo will probably need to use back-up supplies again this year nevertheless.<\/p>\n

\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Cantareira Reservoir running low in 2015, photo by Evelson de Freitas, Estad\u00e3o de S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/em><\/p>\n

It seems odd that Brazil, which has more fresh water than any other country, should experience water shortages.\u00a0 The problem is that resources are concentrated in the low-populated Amazon region.\u00a0 The northeast has experienced years of devastating drought, and the southeast (where Sao Paulo and Rio are) has had a run of below-average rainfall. Pipes connect the regions but pumping water across distances equivalent to London-Istanbul is prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n

Climate change and environmental degradation are exacerbating the problem.\u00a0 The dry northeast may see rainfall drop<\/a> another 20%.\u00a0 Sao Paulo and the southeast expect more rainfall, but intensely, punctuated by years of drought. Rainforest loss means less transpiration for the \u201cflying rivers\u201d that bring rain down south.\u00a0 And illegal urban construction near rivers prevents rainfall from being absorbed.\u00a0 Replanting trees near rivers would be a cheaper way to preserve rainfall than big infrastructure projects linking water basins, but demand for urban land is high, and laws aren\u2019t always enforced.<\/p>\n

Water scarcity also affects the economy through energy prices. Around three-quarters<\/a> of Brazil\u2019s electricity is generated by hydro.\u00a0 Last year\u2019s water shortage in the southeast was exacerbated by political decisions to run hydro (the cheapest form of generation) more intensively to keep electricity bills down before the November 2014 elections.\u00a0 If there are further droughts because of climate change, Brazil\u2019s hydro capacity may be reduced.\u00a0 To maintain a low carbon power supply and meet its international climate commitments, Brazil will need to achieve all itsambitions to develop<\/a> solar and wind power.\u00a0 (Nuclear is theoretically possible but the only plant under development is stalled by corruption investigations).<\/p>\n

This is a real pressure on Brazil\u2019s emissions. Between 2011 and 2014, emissions from power generation increased<\/a> 171% even though generation only increased by 11%. \u00a0The increase (admittedly from a\u00a0very low base) was because of the shift to thermal.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, water and sanitation services are poor.\u00a0 More than half of Brazilians don\u2019t have their sewage collected.\u00a0 A tiny percent of waste water is treated and returned into the water system, which means there\u2019s more pressure on freshwater sources (and more energy spent pumping water around the network).\u00a0 Access to piped water hasincreased significantly<\/a> (from 78% to 94% of the population between 1990 and 2015), but there is insufficient investment in maintenance, and more than a third of water is lost in leakage.<\/p>\n

The culture of water use is starting to change.\u00a0 Paulistanos talked obsessively about water last year, sharing tips on how to use less.\u00a0 There are some easy savings \u2013 the average Brazilian used 167<\/a> litres per day in 2014, compared 121l<\/a> in Germany. \u00a0The culture of showering twice a day probably won\u2019t stop though, unless pipes actually run dry \u2013 Brazilians are notoriously clean and often find foreigners smelly!<\/p>\n

\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Euromonitor, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Destatis \u2013 Statistiches Bundesamt, \u2018Use of drinking water remained constant in 2013\u2019, webpage viewed 11 March 2016.\u00a0https:\/\/www.destatis.de\/EN\/FactsFigures\/NationalEconomyEnvironment\/Environment\/EnvironmentalSurveys\/WaterSupplyIndustry\/Current.html<\/p>\n

Euromonitor 2014,\u00a0Global Bathing Habits<\/em>, Datagraphic Survey<\/p>\n

Girardi, G 2015, \u2018Site monitora em tempo real emiss\u00f5es de CO2 do setor el\u00e9trico no Brasil\u2019, Estad\u00e3o de S\u00e3o Paulo,\u00a0<\/em>19 November<\/p>\n

Hirtenstein, A 2015, \u2018Brazil Seeks to Boost Solar Industry to Match Wind, BNDES Says\u2019,\u00a0Bloomberg<\/em>, 28 October<\/p>\n

IPCC 2014,\u00a0Central and South America<\/em>, chapter 27 in Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/em>. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1499-1566.<\/p>\n

Lada, B 2016,\u00a0South America autumn forecast: Brazil drought to ease; Early rains to soak Colombia to Chile<\/em>, Accuweather.com, 2 March, viewed 11 March 2016. \u00a0http:\/\/www.accuweather.com\/en\/weather-news\/2016-south-america-autumn-forecast-drought-eases-brazil-rain-colombia-to-chile\/55603181<\/p>\n

Ministerio de Minas e Energia 2014, Energia no Bloco dos Brics: Ano de Referencia 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

OECD 2015,\u00a0Environmental Performance Review: Brazil 2015<\/em>, OECD Publishing, Paris<\/p>\n

Time 2015,\u00a0A Megacity Without Water: Sao Paulo\u2019s drought<\/em>, online video, 13 October, viewed 11 March 2016.\u00a0http:\/\/time.com\/4054262\/drought-brazil-video\/<\/p>\n

WHO\/UNICEF 2015, Water Supply Statistics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Barbour Online MSc Carbon Management 2015-2016 Brazilians lack the British obsession with weather.\u00a0 I often start conversations by commenting on how sunny it is, only to remember that\u00a0every day is sunny in Brasilia.\u00a0 Talking about water is perhaps the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[171,203,127,209,208,210],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}