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Pantanal, the largest not-coastal
marsh of the world
Vast marsh of the center
of South America, Pantanal covers a surface
of 230 000 Km² (half of France), set
out again between Bolivia, Paraguay and
Brazil.
At the rain season, from October at March,
the rivers of the surrounding highlands
flow in Pantanal, thus flooding two thirds
of the territory during half of the year.
This area located at 2000 km of the Atlantic
east only to 100 or 200 m of altitude. It
knows an extremely slow fall because it
has, like principal way of drainage, only
Rio Paraguay (which is thrown in Rio of
Plata).
The fauna and the flora of Pantanal are
extremely rich with 1700 vegetable species,
650 aviary species, 260 varieties of fish,
about fifty reptiles and 80 species of mammals.
A shantytown of Corumbá
(Bolivia/Brazil border)
Remunda, 33 years old, and her husband live
with their two daughters, Priscilla 11 years
old and Viviane 6 years old, in a consolidated
hut of 15m². By consolidated one understands
that a concrete cover covers the ground
and that the walls partly (up to 1 meter)
consist of bricks. Beyond they are sheets
and boards out of wooden. He is fishing
professional and from time to time tourist
guide on Rio Paraguay. This year fishing
is very difficult because there are few
fish and the tourist season is announced
bad.
The shantytowns of provinces have more "chance"
that those of the large cities, they have
the possibility of having a garden where
they can live, hang the linen and sometimes
to have a kitchen garden.
In appendix of the house a small hut out
of wooden acts as toilet. The excrements
are collected here in a hole with very the
ground. The water reserve of the family
is stored in a tank in Eternit under the
mimosas of the garden.
Fortunately for the interview the weather
is nice, we thus benefit from the garden
with all the family, the adults have with
them glass of subdued cold with the hand.
In rainy weather all this small world piles
up in the single part of the hut which counts
already a refrigerator tele, and two beds…
Water
If the fact of having a garden is not considered
by the inhabitants of the favela a luxury,
that to have running water in its house
would be one.
To fill the tank, Remunda and his/her husband,
use cans of 30 Liters which they fill with
the common tap below located their dwelling.
This tap is not "legal" in the
direction where they are the inhabitants
of the district who them same installed
it.
"We steal the water of the city, but
the city know it and it is a tolerance of
their share".
"They know that with only one tap for
several houses we will not waste water".
"They also know that without water
we could not live".
Moreover the common one remains recipient
in the life of the shantytown, a public
awareness campaign was made for the inhabitants
of the shantytown concerning the problem
of the Dengue.
"They in particular recommended us
to cover all the water tanks and to exclusively
hold a clean can for the water of consumption".
We were surprised by the joy and the simplicity
which emerged from this interview with this
family.
Heat helping, Viviane, followed of Priscilla
are to go to drink in front of us directly
in the tank in Eternit. These natural daily
gestures proved that there was still an
enormous work to achieve in communication
on hygiene. The mother had said to us, two
minutes before, that it applied exclusively
the recommendations of the commune concerning
the use of a can for drinking water... there
was in the tank of the larvae of mosquitos
(the dengue is transmitted by the mosquitos).
When we made the remark with the family
of it, they started to laughing.
It is extraordinary to be merry but it is
necessary to pay attention to its health.
Rio Negro, Southern Chaco (Paraguay)
Ruta 9, Km 177
Here are now several kilometers
which we left behind us Pantanal. The area
that we whom we cross remainder however
wet and strewn with ponds.
"Hold one would not stop to ask them
how it lives water daily"
"Bueno, one goes there"
The house in which we return is made trunks
of palm tree pushing in abundances in the
area. The roof is made same wood, but is
differently worked so as to make an interlacing
of corrugated the sheet type protecting
effectively from the rain.
The family that we meet account 13 members
to which add two dead. Only 7 live all the
round year here. The others work a little
further in the country and return only seldom
on their premises. To live, the family has
a herd of cows and goats.
Oldest of the children present is 17 years
old. She remained near her mother to help
it in the tasks of tous.les.jours. It is
it, Juana Sanchez, which enough curiously
will accomodate us and carry out the maintenance
of the beginning until the end. The mother
prefers to express herself in Guarani, one
of the two national languages, which does
not simplify the exchange of information.
There is neither running water here nor
electricity, the only means of having water
is to go to draw it from the ponds which
are neighbourhood. All the houses of the
corner undergo the same fate.
"We will seek water as soon as we need
some in the pond which is behind the house
with a few meters".
"We try to go there to two at a rate
of three times per day. The daily consumption
of the family is 240 Liters. We do it using
seals of 20 Liters ".
"let us drink We it just as it is,
without treatment, nor decantation. It is
very good and we never had problems ".
In the family there is a small infant of
1 year, which seems seemingly péter
health. They looked us with large round
eyes, when we asked to them whether they
made boil water before giving it to the
baby.
"Even for the babies we do not make
it boil".
In 1996, the life expectancy in Paraguay
was only 65 years old, lowest of all the
Latin America!
In this family they do not have toilets
either. They make a hole in the ground and
are protected from a hut out of wooden.
When the hole is full it digs some another
a little further (3 or 4 times per annum)
By here, water is only with 1m of depth,
the capacity of the hole is thus reduced...
"But with water with this depth why
not to dig a well?"
A neighbor who came to join to our interview
explains us that since always they drink
the water of the ponds and that everyone
in the surroundings in fact thus. Like it
does not have aucuns problems there, why
would they change mode of provisioning?
With the question which water for you represents,
Juana initially answered: "Nothing".
Then it reflected and said: "Everyone
uses it, it is drunk, it washes, it is used
in the kitchen". The neighbor then
added: "Without water, nobody can live".
And Juana supplemented by saying "Anybody,
NOR NOTHING cannot live".
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