Brazilian State will pay the sewer connection for low-income families

The state government of Sao Paulo, Brazil, will pay sewer connection for families with income of up to three minimum wages. It is estimated that 192 000 connections will be paid, benefiting about 800 000 people. Will be invested R $ 349.5 million over eight years.

The program will pay for the works within the property, such as labor and material, to make the connection.The goal is to encourage low-income families to connect their homes to the sewer system, because when there is no domestic connection to sewage they pour in fresh water bodies causing damage to the environment and health of the population.

The program is coordinated by the Secretary of Sanitation and Water Resources of the State, Edson Giriboni.

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Guilherme Hungria

Jamaica: Story in the Observer forced NWC into action

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A front page story in the newspaper the Observer urged the National Water Commission (NWC) to quickly repair a freshwater pipe and begin work on a ruptured sewer main that for two weeks had caused great discomfort to residents of Waterford in Portmore, St Catherine. 

In the story  residents complained that a “a pool of sewage, filled with human waste, that had clogged their toilets and sent raw sewage flowing into some homes”.

The problem according to the residents started two weeks ago when a NWC worker came to reconnect a home along Portland West to the sewer system but broke a freshwater pipe and sewer line in the process. As a result what started as small hole in the road became wider later.

A few hours after the newspaper hit the streets NWC workers repaired the pipe and were working feverishly to fix the sewer main — both of which were damaged by workmen.

“We are glad that it is being fixed and we would like it to be done today. We have a heap of pickney (children) here,” said Veronica Brown, an elderly resident of Canewood Road whose toilet, among others, had been clogged and whose house was almost inundated with raw sewage. 

Source: Jamaica Observer, November 09, 2010

BY Paul Henry