Highlight on Water Resources in the Five Brazilian Regions

Resumo

Brazil is recognized internationally as the €œLand of Water", in particular for its huge dams distributed throughout the country. More generally, Brazil is famous for its plentiful water resources, consisting of rivers, streams, lakes and springs, and also the accumulation of groundwater, described in studies of several cities in the five official Brazilian regions. In the Northeast region, for example, the impact caused by the construction of the Sobradinho Dam in the state of Bahia in 1973 on a stretch of the São Francisco River, which entered activity in 1979, made it possible to improve the lives of the residents of cities, including in nearby states and promoting stability of the nation's energy supply. In the North region, we can highlight surface water sources and aquifers, respectively, such as the Tapajós, Negro, Solimões rivers, among others, and groundwater reserves such as Alter do Chão located in the state of Pará. In the Southeast region, the state of Rio de Janeiro has plentiful surface water availability from the Paraíba do Sul River, which supports the consumption of more than 50 municipalities. In addition to Rio de Janeiro, the other states of the region (Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Espírito Santo) contain water sources that have ensured the survival of their high demographic density over the years, indicating the importance of preservation and new methods of use of wastewater reuse or restoration to the environment. In the South region, attention has been drawn to the challenge of managing the uses of water resources for better exploitation of the excess water stemming from periods of flood, to reduce the dependence on the use of aquifers in Serra Geral and Guarani. In turn, the Midwest region is supplied by the Tocantins-Araguaia, Paraná, Amazon, Paraguay and São Francisco rivers, but is subject to the problem of deforestation of riverside areas and lack of proper sanitation. In the final analysis, the water resources in Brazil are an intangible heritage requiring measures for wise distribution to the population while preserving the environment, for the benefit of the country itself and the world.