Pollution and policies threaten Brazil’s water resources

Brazil has some of the most plentiful water resources of any country in the world, counting the planet’s largest river and its second-biggest aquifer among its resources. But a combination of public policies and immunity for companies polluting rivers could render these freshwater sources unserviceable in the near future.

The specter of the Mariana dam burst may have brought socioeconomic devastation and environmental damage to its surroundings, but it failed to generate a change in policy. Samarco, the company responsible for the spill, continues to skirt around legal fines by registering continuous appeals.

But serious pollution crises are still impacting rivers all across the country, from accidental mining spills to authorized waste disposal operations. Since the beginning of this year, mining firms Anglo American and Norsk Hydro have sent iron ore spilling into rivers in Minas Gerais and Pará respectively.

Decreasing quality

New research from NGO SOS Atlantic Rainforest Foundation shows that water quality in freshwater rivers has decreased at an alarming rate over the last couple of years. Just 4.1 percent of the collection points evaluated by the study, which looked at 230 rivers in the Atlantic Forest biome, were found to have good quality water.

“The results point to the fragility of the environmental condition of the main rivers of the Atlantic Forest and the urgency of including water in Brazil’s strategic agenda,” said Malu Ribeiro, one of the...