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Water in Brazil
巴西水資源
Nor any drop to drink
無水可喝
Dry weather and a growing population spell rationing
干旱的氣候和快速增長的人口迫使水資源限量分配
BRAZIL has the world's biggest reserves of fresh water. That most of it sits in the sparsely populated Amazon has not historically stopped Brazilians in the drier, more populous south taking it for granted. No longer. Landlords in S?o Paulo, who are wont to hose down pavements with gallons of potable water, have taken to using brooms instead. Notices in lifts and on the metro implore paulistanos to take shorter showers and re-use coffee mugs.
巴西擁有世界最大淡水儲備量。但這些淡水大多分布在人煙稀少的亞馬遜并不能緩解巴西由來已久的干旱問題，以至于大部分南方民眾都對干旱習以為常。以前圣保羅的農場主習慣將水管伸到地下抽取成加侖的可用水資源，而現在他們開始使用滴灌技術。該技術電梯和城鐵中的告示懇請圣保羅居民縮短沖涼時間，重復使用咖啡杯。
S?o Paulo state, home to one-fifth of Brazil's population and one-third of its economic activity, is suffering the worst drought since records began in 1930. Pitiful rainfall and high rates of evaporation in scorching heat have caused the volume of water stored in the Cantareira system of reservoirs, which supplies 10m people, to dip below 12% of capacity. This time last year, at the end of what is nominally the wet season, it stood at 64%.
圣保羅，這一擁有1/5民眾以及1/3經濟活動的州，正在經歷著自1930年以來最嚴重的干旱。低降水量以及高溫帶來的高蒸發使得的Cantareira蓄水系統的水位降至12%以下，去年的這個時候，也就是所謂的雨季尾季，其水位達到64%。據悉，改蓄水系統為大約1千萬民眾供水。
On April 21st the governor, Geraldo Alckmin, warned that from May consumers will be fined for increasing their water use. Those who cut consumption are already rewarded with discounts on their bills. The city will tap three basins supplying other parts of the state, but since these reservoirs have also been hit by drought and supply hydropower plants, fears of blackouts are rising.
4月21日，州長奧克明警告道自五月開始超額用水將面臨罰款，而那些減少用水的可在水費上獲得一定折扣。城市會開放3個流域用于支持該州的其他地方，但是由于蓄水池受到干旱的影響，還要滿足水力發電產廠的需求，民眾對斷電的恐慌情緒開始上漲。
Without a downpour, Sabesp, the state water utility, expects Cantareira's levels to sink beneath the pipes which link reservoirs to consumers a week after S?o Paulo hosts the opening game of the football World Cup on June 12th. To tide the city over until rains resume in November, it is installing kit to pump half of the 400 billion litres of reserves beneath the pipes, at a cost of 80m reais. The company says this “dead volume”, never before used, is perfectly treatable. Some experts have expressed concerns about its quality.
由于降水量不足，自來水公司Sabesp希望Cantareira的水位可以在6月12號世界杯揭幕戰的一周之后再下降至管道之下，這些管道與蓄水池相連為民眾提供自來水。巴西的雨季通常在11月，在那之前，為了度過干旱他們將花費8000萬雷阿爾安裝設備用以抽取管道下約2000億升左右的儲備水。該公司稱這是最后的儲備，之前沒有動用過，但該項措施足以緩解干旱。一些專家表示將密切關注該舉措的作用。
Mr Alckmin has not ruled out tightening the spigots. Flow from taps in parts of S?o Paulo has already become a trickle, for which Sabesp blames maintenance work. Widespread cuts could hurt the governor's re-election bid in October. Hours after he announced the latest measures, a thirsty mob set fire to a bus.
奧克明并沒有取消對供水量的限制。圣保羅的某些地區，打開水龍頭已經只有水滴了，Sabesp這是日常維護。廣泛地斷水可能會給現任政府在10月的連任帶來不利影響。在他宣布最新措施的一個小時內，一個暴徒縱火燒公交車以示不滿。
Paulistanos use more water than most Brazilians, but lose less of it to leaks: 35%, compared with a national average of 39%. Sabesp, listed on the New York Stock Exchange but majority-owned by the state government, is a paragon of good governance, says John Briscoe, a water expert at Harvard and a former head of the World Bank mission in Brazil.
與大多數巴西民眾相比，圣保羅人用水量更大但滲漏較少，滲漏率約為35%而國家的平均值則為39%。Sabesp雖然已經在紐約證劵交易所上市，但仍由國家控股。水利專家也是前世界銀行駐巴西負責人的John Briscoe表示，該公司公司經營良好。
The problem exposed by the drought is that supply has not kept pace with the rising urban population. Facing a jumble of overlapping municipal, state and federal regulations, investment in storage, distribution and treatment has lagged behind. And not just in S?o Paulo; the national water regulator has warned that 16 projects in the ten biggest cities must be completed by 2015 to prevent chronic water shortages over the next decade. So far only five are finished; work on some has not begun. Short-term measures should keep the water trickling for now. But the well of temporary solutions will eventually run dry.
干旱的爆發是因為水供應沒跟上城市人口增加的速度。由于各級政府權力劃分不清，州與聯邦條例混亂的問題，政府在儲存分配和處理的支出不足。這不僅僅是圣保羅的問題，國家水管理局警告道位于10個大型城市的16個項目必須在2015年前完成，這些項目旨在在未來的十年中解決長期性缺水問題。到現在為止，只完成了5個項目，一些項目甚至還沒有開始。短期措施應使現在有水可用，但這些臨時措施只保得了一時，保不了一世。
