LETTER FROM RIO
It was a month ago. Lícia, like every day, turns on the tap in her kitchen. But in early January, " instead of being transparent, the water that came out was opaque, with a very strong earthy smell and taste ”, recalls this Carioca, 40-year-old biologist and resident of the Tijuca district, north of Rio.
Lost, she and her family finally resolve to buy mineral water. " I have a young daughter, she justifies herself. The authorities did not inform us of anything. On WhatsApp, we saw lots of news circulating, often news reports, saying that the water was poisoned, not even potable for animals "Lícia remembers, for whom" this situation is a real humiliation, proof that there is not the minimum of public services in Rio! "
Activated carbon and detergent
Like millions of other inhabitants, Lícia is the victim of the extravagant "water crisis" which for weeks has been submerging the (not always) wonderful city. This veritable aquatic vaudeville started shortly after New Year's Eve. In several districts of the city, muddy water is then detected. Alerted, the regional public water company (Cedae) reveals the origin of the phenomenon: a vast contamination with the geosmine molecule, affecting the treatment plant of the Guandu river, the largest in the country, producing 45,000 liters of drinking water per second and supplying 9 million inhabitants of the metropolis.
From then on, the fight is launched … but nothing is done. For two weeks, neither Cedae nor the state governor, Wilson Witzel, while on vacation in Florida, saw fit to act, or even communicate on the subject. It will take until January 23, and three weeks of cloudy water, for Cedae to start using massive amounts of activated carbon in its plant, in order to dissolve geosmin … " In a maximum week, everything will be solved! ", swears then Mr. Witzel, who makes dismiss the passage the chief of the station of Guandu. But the promise quickly takes on water: if, in much of the state, the water becomes transparent again, the taste and smell of earth lasts.
Monday, February 3, new act of this tragicomedy: in the night, the Cedae detects the presence of detergent in the " raw water " captured at Guandu. Immediately, without any notice, production is stopped. In the middle of summer, dozens of neighborhoods are deprived of water. And panic takes over the city.
