Of the just over eight million inhabitants of Pará, with the ninth largest population in Brazil, four million do not receive treated water in their homes. It’s a staggering figure, especially as the state occupies a large part of the Amazon basin, the region with the largest accumulation of fresh surface water on the planet (8% of the total). So it’s a shameful situation, only slightly better in the cities (with a supply of 53.6%) compared to the vast and unassisted interior of the state (with 46.4%).
There is no real prospect of things improving, at least if they continue as they are today. Cosanpa, the state company mainly responsible for the water supply, is atrociously inefficient. Almost half of the treated water it supplies is wasted, a rate – the 9th worst in the country – that is 10 percentage points above the national average and exceeds by two and a half times the value recommended by technicians, according to a report by the Ministry of Cities’ National Sanitation Information System, released yesterday.
People in Pará consume a lot of water (160 liters per person per day), but it is still below the national average of 166 liters. But for the water to reach its destination, Cosanpa has to spend a lot of energy, such as pumping water from the Guamá River to the Água Preta and Utinga lakes, which today serve almost only as reservoirs. The company spends 72 cents per kilowatt hour, higher than the national average of 68 cents.
The water tariff in Pará is the second lowest in the country (R$1.73 per cubic meter), well below the national average (R$2.85), while the cost of the service is R$2.02. And the company still takes almost five months to update the receipt of consumers’ bills, an item that accounts for 90% of its overall turnover.
A bad diagnosis, made worse by the fact that this is happening in the place with the most fresh water in the world.
