Rio de Janeiro does not lie on a river. This makes it different from most cities that have grown organically alongside of rivers that supply a continuous source of fresh water. Before the founding of the city by the Portuguese, there was plenty of water for the indigenous groups who lived in the Guanabara Bay basin. Natives located their villages near rivers and streams and land suitable for their gardens. They called salt water uh-ete, fresh water—uh-een, and stagnant water uh-eenbuhc. Only during times of excessive drought would fresh water be scarce.
Water became an issue when Europeans began to construct settlements. At the first, short-lived French fort, built in 1556, there was no source of fresh water. Similarly, the first two sites of the Portuguese settlement, there was better, but still very limited, access to water.
Enormous investments had to be made to bring water into the city of Rio. An aqueduct was finished by the early eighteenth century, and a few public fountains became the source for city resident’s water. Enslaved people carried water from fountains to households and businesses throughout the city. A second aqueduct was finished in the early nineteenth century, which greatly increased the water supply, and more fountains opened. Even with the first independent water businesses, enslaved men and women continued to carry and deliver water. By the mid nineteenth century, piped water gradually became more common, but given the rapid growth of the city, there was not enough water. A new aqueduct was planned that would bring water from the far distant Tinguá forest via pressurized pipes to Rio. New reservoirs, holding tanks, piped infrastructure were built, and when slavery was finally abolished in 1888, the city was no longer dependent on public fountains for water. Not all neighborhoods had piped water, however, and many residents continued to rely on local public spouts. In the 1950s, a major new water project was designed to bring water from the Paraíba River. Known as the Guandu System, it too involved elaborate engineering to get the water from the interior of the state of Guanabara (now Rio de Janeiro) to the city
Today Rio de Janeiro has a managed but serious water problem. Not only are the waters of the Guanabara Bay heavily polluted, but the waters coming from Guandu have suffered bouts of serious contamination. These problems can be solved, but it will take a concerted effort by all to reclaim the the bay and to protect the sources of fresh water for the city.
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