The Novo Rio Pinheiros Program announced the results of actions taken by the São Paulo State Government to clean up the river since 2019. According to January data from the Secretariat of Infrastructure and Environment, there has been a significant improvement in oxygenation and a reduction in organic matter in the water. In June 2019, Governor João Doria promised to clean up the river by 2022.
Out of the 13 monitoring points along the Pinheiros River, 11 have already recorded Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels below 30 mg/l, the threshold required to eliminate odor, improve turbidity, and sustain aquatic life.
The points with the highest water quality are located near the Eusébio Matoso and Jaguaré bridges in the capital's West Zone. These are followed by the sections near the Cidade Universitária, Nova Morumbi, and Socorro bridges.
For the past three years, the state government has been investing in basic sanitation initiatives to reduce the volume of sewage discharged into the Pinheiros River's tributaries. According to the Secretariat of Infrastructure and Environment, more than 554,000 properties have already been connected to the sewage network, preventing their organic load from reaching the river.
Cleanup efforts are also part of the Novo Rio Pinheiros Program and have already removed over 62,753 tons of waste, including PET bottles, bicycles, tires, and plastics discarded into the water. Additionally, dredging operations have removed over 687,456 m³ of sediment from the riverbed.
Next Steps
In the next phase of the Novo Rio Pinheiros Program, water quality recovery units are being built to help reduce the amount of sewage reaching the river. This sewage comes mainly from informal settlements and areas where installing organic load collectors is not feasible.
Five Recovery Units (URs) will be installed near the following creeks: Jaguaré, Pirajussara, Antonico, Cachoeira, and Água Espraiada. The projects are scheduled for completion by the second half of 2022 and will remove 1,560 liters of sewage per second.
Impacts on the Billings Reservoir and the Tietê River
Measurements of domestic sewage entering the Pinheiros River through tributaries also fell from 45 to 26 tons per day. With less organic load in the Pinheiros, the volume of sewage carried to the Billings Reservoir and the Tietê River also decreases.
Starting in 2020 under the cleanup program, Cetesb expanded the number of monitored tributaries from six to 18. Looking only at the organic loads from the six main tributaries, average values were 38 tons per day in 2019, 39 in 2020, and 21 in 2021.
Via CicloVivo.
This article was written by CicloVivo. The translation is powered by AI.
