{"id":206059,"date":"2018-12-14T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=206059"},"modified":"2018-12-18T19:30:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T21:30:40","slug":"fresh-water-for-the-outskirts-of-sao-paulo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/fresh-water-for-the-outskirts-of-sao-paulo\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh water for the outskirts of S\u00e3o Paulo"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Since last Monday (10), some residents in the S\u00e3o Paulo outskirts have fresh water near them for the first time: it was the day the pilot project Water, Health and Life<\/em> (\u00c1gua, Sa\u00fade & Vida) got launched. In attendance were delegates from the United Arab Emirates\u2019\u00a0Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation<\/a>\u00a0and lots of locals from Marsilac, a neighborhood in the city\u2019s southernmost Parelheiros subdistrict.<\/p>\n

The Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil (Fambras<\/a>) and the UAE-based foundation chose the location for the first water treatment station. \u201cThis was our pilot, and both the government and the population welcomed it. The result was amazing and extremely motivating. Those people would walk about 2 km to get drinking water,\u201d Fambras vice president Ali Zoghbi told ANBA.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The local population themselves will handle maintenance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to install the water purifier, the two organizations invested about USD 23,000 between them. \u201cWe have a sector at Fambras called \u2018Sakia Dubai\u2019 (sakia means to quench one\u2019s thirst).\u201d In this project we had a conflation of budgets. The bulk of it got funded by the Foundation,\u201d said Zoghbi.<\/p>\n

Brazilian technology<\/strong><\/p>\n

The device at hand is\u00a0Ecol\u00e1gua<\/a>,\u00a0a creation of Brazil\u2019s Roland Vette, who\u2019s a researcher at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (Inpa), Roland Vette. \u201cI think it\u2019s quite interesting to look for genuinely national solutions. It gives priority to creative people who are seeking technological solutions in Brazil. It\u2019s encouraging. We found a fully national solution here that matched our project,\u201d argued Zoghbi.<\/p>\n

The piece of equipment is already at use by riverside and indigenous populations at some points across Brazil. It relies on ultraviolet (UV) rays to purify river water and make it drinkable. In Parelheiros, Fambras made only a few minor adaptations so it can filter both underground and surface water, the Fambras vice president explained.<\/p>\n

\"Para<\/a>
The launch ceremony was held by Ali Zoghbi (1st R to L), the UAE consul Ibrahim Alalawi, Mohammed Bin Rashid Foundation delegates and local authorities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the first of many purifiers which the organizations hope to install throughout the country, including in the states of Alagoas, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco and the Federal District. \u201cWe have the idea of having at least 90 stations in up to two years. For starters, we will work in S\u00e3o Paulo. In that very area there are other communities, including indigenous ones,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Ecol\u00e1gua can purify up to 400 liters of water per hour. According to Fambras, the system eliminates up to 99.5% of bacteria and fungi from water. The device contains an UV lamp inside a metal tube. As the water runs through the tube, the UV rays disinfect it. The lamp and the device will last 3 to 4 years on average. The equipment\u2019s battery is solar powered, therefore it can work even on cloudy days.<\/p>\n

And who will handle maintenance? The population themselves. \u201cIt\u2019s important to note that that people have been trained to man the station. They organized themselves as a community,\u201d explains Ali. Fambras also trained technicians from the Parelheiros subdistrict and handed out primers with instructions for the population.<\/p>\n

The delegates from Mohammad Bin Rashid Global Initiatives also made visits to other projects they have invested in, like Islam Solid\u00e1rio<\/em> (Solidarity Islam). \u201cIt was a moving experience. People were very grateful for the initiative, and this evidences the UAE\u2019s role in humanitarian aid. It\u2019s an Islamic Arab model country which does this for everyone, because of their rather significant budget. And they ask for nothing in return,\u201d said Ali Zoghbi.<\/p>\n

Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

A UAE-based Foundation and the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil invested about USD 23,000 between them to bring a water treatment station to Marsilac, in the southernmost end of the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2324,"featured_media":206035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[2742,6510,6504,2142,6509,32959,6508],"class_list":{"0":"post-206059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-ali-zoghbi","9":"tag-drinking-water","10":"tag-ecolagua","11":"tag-fambras","12":"tag-fresh-water","13":"tag-fundacao-en","14":"tag-mohammad-bin-rashid-global-initiatives"},"wps_subtitle":"A UAE-based Foundation and the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil invested about USD 23,000 between them to bring a water treatment station to Marsilac, in the southernmost end of the city.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}