![An aerial view of Hacendita Cafubá, on the north shore of Piratininga, a lagoon in southeastern Brazil, when ponds that serve as a spillway and to collect sedimentation of polluted water were being built and filter gardens that clean the water of the Cafubá River before discharging its waters into the lagoon were being planted. CREDIT: Alex Ramos / Niterói City Government](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2023/10/a-6-629x354.jpg)
NITERÓI, Brazil, Oct 20 (IPS) – Homes with balconies going through the road or the encompassing hills, when they aren’t hidden behind excessive partitions, replicate a neighborhood the place individuals reside on the shore of a lagoon however reject the panorama it gives.
Piratininga, a 2.87 sq. kilometer coastal lagoon within the southern a part of the Brazilian metropolis of Niterói, started to alter after a number of many years of uncontrolled city development with no take care of the pure environment, in what has turn into a neighborhood of 16,000 inhabitants.
Rubbish, polluted water, building particles and dangerous odors damage the panorama and the standard of life that’s sought when selecting a lagoon and inexperienced hills as a spot to construct a year-round or weekend residence.
The amassed sludge on the backside of the lagoon is 1.6 meters thick, on common, ensuing from each air pollution and pure sedimentation.
“That is what explains these homes that flip their backs to the lagoon,” defined Dionê Castro, coordinator of the Sustainable Oceanic Area Program (PRO Sostenible) of the town authorities of Niterói, a municipality of 482,000 individuals separated from the town of Rio de Janeiro solely by Guanabara Bay.
Oceânica is likely one of the 5 administrative zones of the municipality, regionally known as areas, which incorporates 11 neighborhoods within the southern half, on the open coastline, in distinction to others on the shore of the bay or inland areas with out seashores. With two lagoons and a superb a part of the Atlantic Forest nonetheless preserved, the world stands out for its nature.
PRO Sostenible, which was based in 2014, seeks to revive environmental programs and to make sure higher and extra sustainable urbanization within the space. Its actions are primarily based on a systemic strategy and nature-based options.
![Dionê Castro is head of the Sustainable Oceanic Region Program of the municipality of Niterói, on the edge of the Piratininga Lagoon in southeastern Brazil. Gardens and piers jutting into the lagoon have replaced the garbage dumps, polluted water and construction debris that had led local residents to reject the landscape, leading houses to be built with their "backs to the lagoon." CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2023/10/aa-5.jpg)
Pure clean-up of the water
This system’s flagship mission is the Orla Piratininga Alfredo Sirkis Park, which pays homage to a pacesetter of the environmental motion, former nationwide lawmaker and former president of the Inexperienced Social gathering, in addition to journalist and author, who died in 2020.
The park, identified by its acronym POP, has the mission of recovering and defending the ecosystems related to the Piratininga Lagoon, along with fostering a way of belonging to the setting and its environment. Because of this, the participation of the native residents in all levels of the mission has been and continues to be a primary precept.
It includes an space of 680,000 sq. meters, the biggest in Brazil in nature-based options initiatives, with 10.6 kilometers of bicycle paths, 17 leisure areas and a 2,800 sq. meter Ecocultural Middle.
To convey residents and guests nearer to the native setting, the plan is to finish three three-story lookout factors – two of which have already been constructed – and piers reaching into the lagoon, a part of which can be utilized for fishing, as fish nonetheless inhabit the lagoon regardless of the air pollution of latest many years.
The primary part, often known as Haciendita Cafubá, was inaugurated on Jun. 17, with a water filtration system for the Cafubá River, one of many three that stream into the lagoon, a lookout level, piers, a bicycle path and even a nursery for new child crocodiles in a particular fenced-in space.
![A view of ponds and, in the background, filtering gardens after their inauguration in June 2023. Hills covered by native vegetation surround the Piratininga lagoon and the neighborhood that grew up over half a century around it and now has 16,000 inhabitants, in Niterói, a neighboring city of Rio de Janeiro in southeastern Brazil. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2023/10/aaa-5.jpg)
“I went to see if I may discover the crocodiles, my son made me stroll down the road, he loves animals… I by no means thought I might see what I noticed… I went to the start of the Haciendita, I noticed fish the place there was nothing dwelling earlier than, I noticed flowers the place there was solely mud, I noticed life the place nature was already lifeless with none hope. Congratulations for tolerating us, that group is hard.”
That is the testimony of a resident, addressed to the pinnacle of PRO Sostenible. The park has had a lot of guests since earlier than its inauguration, attracted by natural world that had lengthy since disappeared from the shores of the lagoon.
The expertise used to scrub the waters is thought world wide however has not been extensively utilized in Brazil. It’s primarily based on filter gardens, during which layers of gravel and permeable substrates function a base for macrophytes, aquatic vegetation that reside in flooded areas and are seen on the floor.
The vegetation filter the water in a course of that doesn’t require chemical inputs.
A particular spillway receives the waters of the Cafubá, which conducts and controls them to present better effectivity to the subsequent pond, the sedimentation pond, step one in cleansing the polluted waters by lowering the stable materials produced by erosion and rubbish thrown into the riverbed.
After the sedimentation basins, the water passes by way of three filtering gardens earlier than flowing into the lagoon.
![Biologists and environmental managers Heloisa Osanai and Andrea Maia are photographed at the Tibau Island lookout point at the western end of the Piratininga Lagoon in southeastern Brazil. The vegetation, dominated by the exotic and invasive white lead tree, is gradually being replaced by local species as part of the restoration and clean-up process. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2023/10/aaaa-2.jpg)
Plant filters
Twelve species of macrophytes are used within the filtration course of, however the selection has been lowered attributable to upkeep difficulties. “We use solely Brazilian species, and no exogenous species,” stated Heloisa Osanai, a biologist specialised in environmental administration and one of many 17 workers of PRO Sostenible.
Examples embody water lettuce and water lilies with orange flowers.
“One of many results of the water remedy is the discount of mosquitoes, which is essential to native residents, who used to burn dry vegetation in an try and drive away the bugs. Folks not construct bonfires within the evenings. The filter gardens entice dragonflies that eat the mosquitoes,” stated Osanai.
Within the bigger Jacaré River, 11 filtering gardens had been created, which function in sequence and whose measurement was designed for better effectivity, stated Andrea Maia, one other biologist and environmental supervisor of the staff.
![Filter gardens beautify the environment and expel mosquitoes, with macrophyte aquatic plant species that clean the water, in addition to decontaminating the Piratininga lagoon, restoring fishing and local tourism in a long-neglected ecosystem of Niteroi, in southeastern Brazil. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2023/10/aaaaa.jpg)
Awards and outcomes
PRO Sostenible has already received a number of nationwide and worldwide awards. It was named one of many three finest environmental sustainability packages in Latin America and the Caribbean within the Sensible Cities 2022 award.
This yr it received one other award from Sensible Cities Latin America, as the very best in Sustainable City Improvement and Mobility. The Park additionally received awards for valuing biodiversity, from the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro, and one other as an environmental mission, from the São Paulo metropolis authorities, for contributing to the Sustainable Improvement Targets of the 2030 Agenda.
Along with the Park, this system has inaugurated a Sports activities and Leisure Middle on the island of Tibau, on the opposite facet of the Piratininga Lagoon, nearer to the ocean.
As a part of this mission, sports activities fields, a playground and a lookout level have been constructed, whereas an invasive tree, the white lead tree (Leucaena leucocephala), native to Mexico and Central America, which dominated the island’s vegetation, has been steadily changed with native species.
The systemic pondering that guides PRO Sostenible is predicated on three pillars, defined Dionê Castro.
First is the complexity of native ecosystems and of the initiatives being applied, specializing in the environmental, pure, social and cultural dimensions.
In second place is what is named “intersubjectivity”, which takes into consideration new paradigms of science, forsaking “simplistic and Cartesian views…The modifications don’t come from exterior, however from native residents, with public enter from the conception of the mission to its execution,” stated the geographer who holds a doctorate in environmental administration.
The third pillar is irreversibility. The lagoon and its ecosystems won’t return to their authentic state, “to zero,” however shall be cleaned up as a lot as attainable to achieve a “new equilibrium,” she stated.
Native assist for the environmental mission led to options in numerous areas, such because the regularization of actual property within the favelas or shantytowns, the development of well being, the revitalization of fishing, and even the creation of a fishermen’s affiliation.
“It is environmental justice on the march,” Castro summed up.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service