The state government of São Paulo has launched the bidding documents for a $290-million project to build a water-transmission system linking the Paraíba do Sul River to the Cantareira system, which supplies most of the São Paulo metropolitan area, with a population of 22 million people.
The Cantareira system’s water volume was down to only 6.4% of capacity by early February. The other five reservoirs that supply drinking water to the region—Alto Tietê, Guarapiranga, Cotia, Rio Grande and Rio Claro—are also well below the normal level, because of the worst drought in southeast Brazil in more than 80 years.