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Brazil’s Paraiba state capital Joao Pessoa is set to receive 125mn reais (US$75.5mn) to improve basic sanitation services under phase two of the national growth acceleration plan (PAC), a spokesperson from state water utility Cagepa told BNamericas.
“A total of 53.4mn reais is going toward projects to expand sewerage service, with the remaining 71.4mn reais being used to improve the city’s potable water supply,” the spokesperson said.
The neighborhoods of Jose Americo, Bessa and Valentina Figueiredo will receive 19.2mn, 9.6mn and 8mn reais, respectively, for work on their sewage systems.
PAC II will also allocate 10.4mn reais to the Pedreira wastewater treatment plant and another 6.2mn reais will go towards cleaning up beaches in Seixas and Penha.
In terms of potable water, 29.5mn reais will go towards building the Translitoranea water main, 11mn reais toward improving the Gramame water treatment plant and 2mn reais will be used to improve pipeline flow and install pressure meters.
The Cidade Verde neighborhood will receive 2mn reais for potable water improvements, the spokesperson said.
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The port of Santos
There is sugar everywhere at one of the terminals in Santos, Brazil‘s biggest port.
It drips from the high conveyor belts that carry loads from the warehouses to the ships, making piles that resemble week-old snow.
The ground is coated with a dark syrup while the air is full of the sweet and slightly sickly smell of a bakery in the morning.
The rhythm of work is frantic with ships being loaded 24 hours a day amid record exports of sugar.
The long queues of vessels waiting off the coast of Santos for a berth in Brazil’s biggest port are a visible sign of the country’s booming economy but also highlight the strains economic growth has placed on its infrastructure.
“This is a country that exported $100bn (£63bn) in 2005 and $200bn in 2008. We need very quick and large investment in infrastructure,” says Weber Bahal from Brazil’s development ministry.
Under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, investing in infrastructure has been at the heart of what is known as the growth acceleration programme (PAC) launched in 2007. A further $500bn is earmarked for investment over the next five years, says Mr Behal.
Lula has described his preferred successor, Dilma Rousseff, as the “mother of the PAC”. She is well ahead of her main rival, Jose Serra, in the 3 October presidential election, according to opinion polls. (more…)
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An area equivalent to 10,000 soccer fields has been wiped out in a massive wildfire in a national park here in the Brazilian capital.
Close to 42,000 hectares of the Brasilia National Park was destroyed in a forest fire that broke out during the weekend, according to the environment ministry.
‘The fire destroyed in 24 hours what another fire in 2007 consumed in a week,’ Col. Odilho of the Brasilia fire department said, describing the devastation caused by the blaze.
He, however, said the fire would be brought under control. Nearly 300 people have been working to put out the flames that in some places were 10 metres high, and that ‘spread quickly because of strong winds’.
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About 110 people were injured, 22 seriously, when part of the seating at a stadium in Brazil collapsed during a car race, rescue services say.
The most severely injured were taken to hospital after the accident at the Quatro Pontes stadium in southern Parana state.
At least 500 people were sitting in the section of the stands which collapsed on Sunday.
Police have begun an investigation into the cause of the collapse.
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The Brazilian government plans to set up 10 hydroelectric power plants this year with an aim to generate 4,000 MW of electricity, an official said.
The government has already submitted plans for three large hydroelectric projects to the Court of Auditors and it has plans to do the same with other smaller dams before Oct 10, said the president of the EPE energy research company, Mauricio Tolmasquim.
‘The timeframe is very short and everything still depends on whether the environmental licenses are issued on time,’ Tolmasquim told reporters after a seminar at the Sao Paulo State Federation of Industries Friday.
The hydroelectric projects are to be set up in the western state of Mato Grosso near the southern edge of the Amazon jungle. The largest of them, Teles Pires project, is planed to be set up near Paranaita town and will have the capacity to generate 1,820 MW electricity.
In April, contracts were awarded to a consortium of nine companies to build the 11,233 MW Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on an Amazon tributary. The dam would be the world’s third largest after China’s Three Gorges and Itaipu, which is jointly managed by Brazil and Paraguay.
Currently, about 85 percent of Brazil’s electricity is generated through hydroelectric plants.
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