Water Shortages In Brazil

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

I was aware that there were shortages but this article makes it seems fairly apocalyptic.

Doesn't sound like a problem which can be addressed in the short term, less bio fuel rain forest clearance, population diversification and building a better water infrastructure are needed I guess.

Inevitably the poorest will suffer most, I wonder will this shape or change the geographic spread of Brazil's population. Will Internal water seeking migration become a thing? Haven't been to Sao Paulo this year so I can't comment on whether the situation is as dire as it sounds in this article.

https://news.yahoo.com/brazilians-hoard-water-prepare-possible-drastic-rationing-164505818--business.html

 

[Johnny]

A good time to be in Argentina !

 

[camberiu]

"[font=Helvetica Neue']Many large water-intensive industries, including beverages, cellulose and steel, long ago made contingency plans to truck in water or use underground wells, which may stave off a full-fledged economic disaster.(...)[/font][font=Helvetica Neue']Many richer Brazilians have large storage tanks built into their apartment buildings or houses which, combined with more conscious water use, may allow them to survive severe rationing without ever seeing their taps go dry.[/font]
[font=Helvetica Neue']But most working-class families can't afford such measures. Some unions are planning demonstrations for next month to protest the government's handling of the crisis and demand the poor don't bear the brunt of it."

Why are the large corporation and the wealthy prepared for the water shortage? Because for a decade, experts have been warning about this, but the Lula/Dilma regime chose to ignore it. This is a man made disaster, caused by mismanagement, waste and hubris. Lula and Dilma 10 years ago started the Brazilian version of "Casa para todos", a massive program where subsidized real estate loans. So housing construction exploded. But no additional infrastructure was build to ensure that all these new apartments (many with swimming pools) would have enough water. Subsidies to agribusiness's also meant increased consumption of water for irrigation (for export). Again, with little to no investment on infrastructure. The investment that happened, such as the multi-billion dollar transposition of the Sao Francisco river was never finished, since most of the money was outright STOLEN by Lula's cronies (many who were former Marxist guerrillas).
All the painful progress the country made during the 1990s has undone by these idiots. [/font]