PPP to face water crisis

São Lourenço Production System, foreseen for 2017 will increase the availability of water for the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo and will reduce the pressure on the CantareiraSystem

The year of 2015 certainly will be remembered as an alert of the reaction power of nature in face of the constant aggressions made by mankind. Brazil faced a sharp reduction of rainfall indexes that put in risk the operation of several power plants and reduced (in some cases eliminated) the stored volume of resources in water supply systems of some cities. This situation occurred, for example, in the Cantareira System, the largest of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, responsible by supplying water for 5.3 million people in the Central and Northern zones and in part of the Eastern and Western zones of the capital. Thissystem is composed by the riversJaguari, Jacareí, Cachoeira, AtibainhaandJuqueri (Paiva Castro).  During the last year, the Cantareira System reached the elevation of the dead volume and was recovered only this year. The situation forced the population to carry out a series of restrictive measures and demanded investments from the State Government and from the Basic Sanitation Company of the State of São Paulo(Sabesp) to reduce the dependence of the Cantareira System.

The main bet of the government of São Paulo to reduce the dependence of the Cantareira System is the conclusion of the São Lourenço giant Project. This new system of water production has a treatment capacity of 6.4 cu.mt. per second and may attend two million inhabitants of the Western Region of São Paulo, in addition to other areas supplied currently by other systems. Carried out as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), São Lourençoworks started in 2014 scheduled to be concluded in 2018. But the state government and the construction consortium accelerated the works to start the operation six months before (already in 2017). The privatepartner (Sistema Produtor São Lourenço, composed by the contractors Andrade Gutierrez and Camargo Corrêa) investments will reach R$ 2.21 billion. Contract deadline is 25 years.The system will collect 4700 liters per second in França waterfall, located inIbiúna. There is also the possibility of increasing this offer to 6400 liters per second, enough to supply more 500 thousand persons.

There are 29 worksites installed. One of the more critical sections is the first passage below the Raposo Tavares Highway (already ended), path of the treated water pipeline. In addition to this passage, the system started in Marchthe excavation of the second passage below the same road. A sub-pipeline that will attend the district ofAtalaia, inCotia, city of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, will go through this passage.

Another important works that are being developedinvolve the assemblage of three reservoirs (the largest ofSabesp), in the Water Treatment Plant (ETA) ofVargem Grande, each one with storage capacity of 25 million liters of raw water. A concrete reservoir that will store 20 million liters of treated water will also be built in the same place. Two other metallic reservoirs with storage capacity of 30 million liters of water will be assembled inItapevi.

Thetransportof this water to the supplyingareas will be carried out through two elevating stations and new pipelines and sub-pipelines that will connect the São Lourenço System to the existing systems.