Tons of waste pollutes the waters of Manaus

France Press agency , Posted on Saturday 02 Jul 2022 at 09:29

In Manaus, the largest city in the Brazilian Amazon region, tons of smelly trash line canals and waterways, a terrifying sight in this urban area surrounded by the largest rainforest in the world.

In a poor neighborhood in the west of the city, the excavator removes a huge amount of bottles, pieces of plastic and even household appliances that are floating near dwellings on stilts.

In the south, not far from the river port, municipal agents in orange pick up trash on the boat and pile it up, to clear it, on a large barge, on the Rio Negro, one of the boat’s main tributaries. Amazon.

As the water levels rise around this time which marks the end of the rainy season, waste sometimes permeates tree branches.

Every day, nearly 30 tons of garbage is removed. In some neighborhoods, the waste is so concentrated that it completely obscures the waterways.

This phenomenon is repeated every year in this season, but the authorities have indicated that the situation has worsened in recent weeks.

From January to May, municipal services removed 4,500 tons of waste, most of which was recyclable, but residents dumped it in the water.

“Those who live on the banks throw rubbish bins directly into the canals. I think only one in five people throw them in the right places,” Antonino Pereira, 54, who is struggling to conceive, told AFP. The stench near the city bridge.

For Jose Rebocas, Undersecretary for City Hall Cleaning Services, educating the population will allow the town to save 1 million reais (about 180,000 euros) per month.

“This awareness is necessary to preserve the environment,” he says.

The Amazon has also experienced a sharp increase in deforestation, which reached a record level in the first half of the year, removing more than 3,750 square kilometers of forest.