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The Curitiba that is not a flower to be smelled

CURITIBA - "It smells bad. What can you do, you have to live with it."

"It smells bad. What can you do, you have to live with it." The comment of shoe shiner Israel Vieira Seguezi, 18 years old, is similar to that of all the people who work at Boca Maldita, on the sidewalk of Rua XV de Novembro, downtown Curitiba. "It just takes three days without rain. When it's sunny, even smoke comes out of the manhole", comments salesman Lucas de Souza Pinheiro, 26.

A few meters away, on Avenida Marechal Deodoro, near Praça Zacarias, the situation is the same. "On hot days, it's unbearable", defines teacher Márjorie Alves, 36, who passes by the place every day. The stink route runs freely through the Center, in all directions: Praça Osório, Praça Carlos Gomes, Judge Westphalen, Pedro Ivo, Marechal Floriano Peixoto, José Loureiro. Until the Guadalupe Terminal, the ordeal is practically the same.

The central region of Curitiba is not only the economic and commercial center of the capital: it is also ground zero for the bad smell, which spreads throughout the city, via polluted rivers and irregular sewage connections. A reality experienced daily by the residents of Rebouças, just over two kilometers from the Center. There, a stretch of the Água Verde River with all kinds of dirt cuts through backyards and takes the bad smell into the houses. "Here, the rats have a specific time to appear", says resident Alberto José Cabral Chaves, who has lived in the area since the 1960s. "In the morning and at the end of the afternoon they go out to look for food."

Residents living near the bus station in the Fazendinha neighborhood live in a similar situation, more than seven kilometers from the center. The Formosa River, which flows into the Barigüi River, is one of the most polluted in the city. With black water, it passes beside the terminal and cuts through a condominium with more than one hundred apartments.

Resident of Parque Residencial Fazendinha for four years, retiree Nilton Hernandes, 51, closes the window and turns on the fan when the stench starts. "I've already seen three sofas passing through the river", he reveals. "It has a tire, plastic bottle and Styrofoam, in addition to the sewer." Taxi drivers who spend the day beside the terminal also have stories to tell. "We've already asked Urbs to change the point, because there are days we can't stand it", reports José Aparecido de Carvalho, 60 years old. "There are days when the bottom of the river is full of black, stinking slime."

Prado Velho, Botanical Garden, Parolin, Cajuru, Industrial City of Curitiba. With the exception of the higher-up neighborhoods, such as São Francisco and Mercês, and the more affluent regions, such as Batel, Água Verde and Jardim Social, practically the entire city stinks. "Some days it's unbearable", comments Maria Rosa do Carmo, 41, who takes the bus every day at the CIC terminal. "There's nothing to do. People who need to work can't care about these things."

Spread

"Everywhere in the city has problems. And the bad smell comes exclusively from the sewage thrown into the rainwater galleries", defines Sanepar's Environment director, Maria Arlete Rosa. She does not have data on the number of irregular connections in Curitiba, but says that 80.73% of the population (about 1.4 million people, or approximately 491,000 buildings) have access to the sewage system. Which doesn't mean all the connections have been made. "Many don't want to pay the sewage fee. And many don't want to mess with the construction", says Maria Arlete.

It is not difficult to understand the cause of the bad smell. The city's underground lines are cut by two networks, the rainwater network (through which rainwater drains and flows into rivers), and the sewer network, which is deeper and is destined for Sanepar's treatment stations. In the case of buildings with irregular connections, the sewage falls directly into the rainwater galleries and has the rivers as its destination. With the heat, the smell of sewage comes out through the manholes, which are connected to the rainwater network.

"The worst smell I've ever smelled in Curitiba was on the Belém River, around the Sanepar station", points out journalist Eduardo Fenianos, known as Urbenauta, who has sailed on all the city's rivers. "Belém is the stinkiest, but Barigüi is also very polluted." He, who made a "trip to the city center", points out other points, such as the vicinity of the Metropolitan Cathedral, at Praça Tiradentes, and Rua Cruz Machado and Rua Hermelino de Leão.

"We have two basic types of pollutants: residential and commercial sewage. Due to lack of information or even negligence, many people who are building the sewage network mistakenly place it in the drain", explains environmental engineer Guilherme Samways. "The bad smell comes from anaerobic bacteria. During the digestion of organic matter, hydrogen sulphide gas is eliminated. This happens in the first hours of degradation."

Inspection of irregular sewage connections is carried out by Sanepar and the city of Curitiba, but the assessment is the responsibility of the municipal authorities, via the Municipal Secretariat for the Environment or Public Works. Sanepar's idea is to increase partnerships with the City Hall, residents' associations and schools, such as those made to clean up the North region of the Belém River basin and the Tarumã River.

Per

Jose Marcos Lopes. Collaborated with Bia Moraes, from Gazeta do Povo Online

12/17/2006 3:06 pm

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