Energy and water are central and cross-cutting issues on the agendas and global discussions on sustainable development. And in Itaipu it could not be different. Generating clean, renewable energy with environmental care is a premise that guides the company from the time of its construction, when the first formal area of environment and community relations in the Brazilian electric sector was created.
Since then, the company has led a transformation in western Paraná, through the Cultivating Good Water Program (CAB). Created in 2003, the initiative brings together a set of actions aimed at ensuring the quantity and quality of water and the territorial sustainability. And many of the initiatives implemented become a reference for new hydroelectric projects and major infrastructure projects worldwide.
Amid the worst water crisis faced by the country in 2015, the CAB was elected the best practice in water management by the United Nations (UN). The awards were presented on March 30, at the institution’s headquarters in New York. The award is the most important seal in the environmental area granted to the binational.
Among the main actions that are part of the CAB are:
- Are the catchments of recovery, with emphasis on the protection of springs;
- Restoration of riparian forests;
- Soil conservation;
- Road realignment;
- Installation of community water supply;
- Deployment of tanks for water reuse;
- As well as promoting more sustainable production;
- Consumption and environmental education systems.
The CAB differential is the [+] strategy of engaging communities using a methodology that ensures broad participation and inclusion of various social actors, including vulnerable segments such as indigenous communities, fishermen, quilombolas, waste collectors and small producers. There are more than 2,000 partners among governments, public agencies, businesses and community leaders who actively participate from the situational diagnosis, to plan, implement and evaluate actions.
More than one decade later, the program is at an advanced stage in 30% of the territory (covering 29 municipalities), with 217 watersheds being recovered. It has promoted the recovery of nearly 2,000 kilometers of rural roads, protection of more than 1,300 kilometers of riparian forests, more than 23,500 hectares of soil conservation and implementation of 165 community water suppliers, actions that contribute to the reduction of sitting of rivers, erosion as well as the water conservation and preservation.
All this experience has turned into social technology to help local governments and other countries suffering from water scarcity. The program is already being replicated in Latin America and has inspired many others. In the national level in 2015 it as adopted by the Government of Minas Gerais, a state which holds the largest river basins in the country, and Brasília, where the Paraná river begins to form.
To learn more about the program, visit: [+] www.cultivandoaguaboa.com.br
