RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The renovation works of the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon will start this week. The announcement was made by the Municipal Secretary of the Environment, Bernardo Egas, on Friday, January 10th.
Initially, seven decks around the water will be refurbished, replacing the rotten wood and rebuilding the guardrail to protect users.
“We conducted a survey of the surroundings of the lagoon and the Rainha and Dos Macacos Rivers, which flow into it, and heard complaints from residents about irregular leaks into the channels of these rivers,” said Bernardo Egas.
The renovation works will take place in four stages. In the first stage, there will be the consolidation of conservation areas in the surrounding area, in a Lagoon Mosaic, the managing council of which will include the involvement of residents.
Then, the decks will be renovated. Thirdly, a task force comprising the secretariat and Rio-Águas will use robots to inspect the surrounding drainage network. The goal is to detect irregular sewage discharges.
In the last stage, the Lagoa.RIO program will start the water clean-up works implementing the project designed by engineer Paulo Cesar Rosman, professor at Coppe/UFRJ. The plan will extend the connection between the sea and the lagoon, through pipelines, benefiting from the tidal flow.
In order to ensure the financing of the final stage, Egas participated in COP 25, the conference of the United Nations in Madrid in December. On that occasion, he signed an agreement with R-20 (Regions of Climate Action), an NGO founded in 2011 by Arnold Schwarzenegger, in partnership with other institutions such as the UN, clean technology companies and academic centers.
The goal is to assist projects focused on the environment.