In urban areas of Brazil, such as São Paulo, growing slums are major contributors to the pollution of water sources. Over the last three decades, the strategic location of the Guarapiranga river basin – close to the vibrant employment opportunities of São Paulo city – has led to an increased number of informal settlements and an explosion in the basin’s population from around 330,000 in 1980 to some 750,000 in 2000, of which over 100,000 live in slums.

These slum dwellers, living on public land and irregular plots, tend to concentrate in precarious, flood-prone areas in the basin, and have no appropriate infrastructure for water supply, sewerage, drainage and solid waste management. Their domestic waste therefore contributes directly to the pollution of the water reservoir.

This is why in the 1990s the World Bank decided to support the State of São Paulo with a project that sought to guarantee the Guarapiranga Reservoir as a reliable water source, capable of supplying some 3 million people in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, by:

• developing capabilities to manage the water basin in an environmentally sustainable manner;
   
• improving the quality of life of  550,000 inhabitants through the rehabilitation and expansion of sanitary infrastructure, solid waste collection and drainage; and
   
• containing inappropriate settlements and promoting land use compatible with environmental conservation.

Some of the results of the Guarapiranga Project include: 

• 8,050 new connections to the existing sewerage system and 41,000 connections prepared for the new sewerage system;
   
• 2,674 families at risk (13,370 people) resettled out of the basin in new housing;
   
• 17, 359 families (86,797 people) benefited from upgraded housing and improved quality of life; and
   
• 38,200 families (191,000 people) benefited from infrastructure improvements.
  

President Wolfowitz visits the Guarapiranga project - Dec. 15, 2005  Photos | Video President Wolfowitz visits Brazil Full coverage    ALSO:  The World Bank's work in Latin America  & the Caribbean in  Water & Sanitation Supply  Urban Development   Â