Brazil: Tap water contaminated with chemicals in 763 cities

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – We all drink small daily doses of chemical and radioactive substances. These are pesticides and other industrial wastes mixed into rivers and reservoirs. Some experts maintain no risk if they are within the regulated limit. Others argue that the doses accepted in Brazil are permissive because they are much higher than those in the European Union.

On one point, there is no doubt: these substances are harmful to health when they are above the Brazilian limit. Daily consumption increases the risk of cancer, genetic mutations, hormonal problems, kidney, liver, and nervous system problems – depending on the product.

Unpublished data surveyed by Repórter Brasil show that these are the risks offered by the water that came out of the tap in 763 cities between 2018 and 2020. Chemical and radioactive substances were found above the limit in every fourth municipality that did the tests. Among them is São Paulo (13 tests above the limit), Florianópolis (26), and Guarulhos (11).

The data are the results of tests conducted by companies or supply agencies and sent to Sisagua (Information System for Monitoring the Quality of Water for Human Consumption) of the Ministry of Health. The tests are done after treatment, and most of these substances cannot be removed by filters or by boiling the water.

“If there are substances above the maximum allowed value, we can say that the water is contaminated,” says Fábio Kummrow, professor of toxicology at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). “Another way of saying this is that the water is not fit for consumption, as when a food product passes its expiration date. Contaminated or unfit, Kummrow confirms that there is a risk for those who drink the water, and it varies according to the substance and the number of times it has been consumed over time.

The risk is greater for those who have drunk it several times over the years. That is the case for those who live in São Paulo, Florianópolis, Guarulhos, and 79 other cities where the same substance was found above the limit in the three years analyzed (2018, 2019, and 2020).

These products have a different dynamic than bacterial contamination with silent impact, which causes stomach pain, diarrhea, and even cholera outbreaks. The symptoms of chemicals and radioactive substances can take years, but they are in the form of serious illnesses when they appear.

Studies associating these products with cancer, genetic mutations, and various other health problems are stamped by the most respected health agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the regulatory agencies of the European Union, the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Nitrate, for example, the third most frequently exceeded limit, is used to manufacture fertilizers, food preservatives, explosives, and medicines. It is classified as “probably carcinogenic” by the WHO.

COMPANIES HIDE THE DATA

The tests are financed with public money and from the people who pay the water bill, but the results are under lock and key. The water supply companies should inform the population whenever a substance appears above the limit, as determined by the ordinance on water potability. But this does not happen.

Sabesp, responsible for water distribution in more than 370 cities in São Paulo State, including the capital, only publishes “basic parameters”, such as color, turbidity, and fecal coliforms. Even searching the website, it is impossible to access the chemical substances above the limit.

The same problem was found with Companhia Catarinense de Águas e Saneamento (Casan) and Companhia de Água e Esgoto do Ceará (Cagece).

In the United States and the European Union, anyone can check tests for all the substances present in the water. And in many of these countries, companies monitor a larger number of substances and alert consumers in case of problems.

“If microbiological contaminants are found, for example, a determination to boil the water is sent to consumers by e-mail, SMS, radio, etc.,” says Dorte Skræm of Danva, an organization representing water services in Denmark. According to him, transparency is total. “There was a case [of contamination] a few years ago that involved 500,000 inhabitants, the media covered it, and it was used to inform consumers.”

Warnings like this should have occurred in the 763 municipalities that identified testing above the limit.

“The picture revealed by this data is serious,” says Leo Heller, Fiocruz researcher and UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water from 2014 to 2020. “They show omissions and failures of agencies and services that are part of an important chain of responsibilities.”

CONTINUED CONTAMINATION IN SÃO PAULO

Almost every state that tested the water found problems. São Paulo found the most, with 1,298 results above the limit, but it was also the state that tested the most. There were 831,000 tests, 45% of all the tests performed in Brazil.

The São Paulo capital brings a worrisome picture: three substances above the limit, one of them in the three years analyzed. The highest risk scenario, continuous contamination, occurred in 82 cities in Brazil.

The substances above the limit were in three important systems that supply the city. In Guarapiranga, for example, which supplies 4.8 million São Paulo residents, trihalomethanes exceeded the limit several times over the three years.

Trihalomethanes were the group with the most out-of-standard tests in Brazil. Classified as a possible carcinogen by the WHO, they can cause kidney and liver problems. These elements are used in agrochemicals, solvents, anesthetics, and fire extinguishers. Its main origin in water, however, comes from the treatment process.

TREATMENT THAT CONTAMINATES

Ironically, the most responsible for the problems with water in Brazil are substances generated by the treatment itself. When chlorine interacts with elements such as algae, sewage, or pesticides, the so-called “disinfection byproducts” are born.

They are above the limit in 493 cities, 21% of those tested. “It is evident that it is important to treat water to remove microorganisms, but it is not acceptable to eliminate biological risks and generate chemical risks,” says Heller, from Fiocruz. Besides the public agencies that should monitor, it is also up to industry and agribusiness to control the dumping of toxic substances into the environment. “But those in the center [companies and supply agencies] are the ones who should guarantee quality.

DOES ANYONE MONITOR?

The lack of transparency is so significant that inspectors do not always have access to data. In almost half of the municipalities (48%), the supply companies did not report the results to Sisagua. It is serious since it is through Sisagua that the municipal or state health departments monitor the water.

Even in the cities that test the most, such as São Paulo, there are problems. Sabesp claims that the results above the limit are occasional cases and do not indicate water standard problems. The company informs that it makes its evaluation by a moving average but does not disclose this data. When questioned, Sabesp refused to send the results or the criteria for calculating the average. Sought, the Municipal Health Secretariat admits it also did not have access to this data.

The Guarulhos City Hall denied that there are substances above the permitted limit, even in the face of Sisagua data. Florianópolis said it is working to solve the problem.

In some cases, it is evident that the inspection does not exist. In Unaí (Minas Gerais State), the most severe alert should have sounded. Besides being the city that had the most tests above the limit (72), there was a radioactive substance outside the standard in the three years: radium-228, classified as carcinogenic and used in x-rays and other radiation instruments.

When contacted, the city hall admitted that they had not noticed the problem and later stated that it was a typing error.

RADIOACTIVITY AND PESTICIDES

Radioactive substances appear above the limit in 22 Brazilian municipalities, mainly in Minas Gerais State. They can be in the water due to industrial waste, but also naturally due to the presence of uranium and other minerals. There should be a double concern in these cases because they are toxic by ingestion and inhalation, says Viviane Amaral, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. However, they are the least tested, only 2% of the total tests done between 2018 and 2020.

In cases where it is necessary to remove them from the water, Amaral argues that the most viable solution is to change the source of supply due to the high cost of treatment. It is the same case with several pesticides since there is no affordable treatment for everyone.

There are 50 cities with pesticides above the limit. These cases should also be on high alert because of their hazardousness: 19 of the pesticides monitored in Brazilian water are so dangerous to health that they have been banned in the European Union. Five are “eternal substances”, so resistant that they never degrade.

Despite the problem, specialists urge caution to avoid panic: “Getting water from the neighbor’s well or buying water that you don’t know the origin can be worse”, says Paulo Barrocas, a researcher at Fiocruz. Bottled water also brings the problem of plastic, which can also release dangerous substances.

The ideal is to avoid contamination of waterways. “In the case of pesticides, we need rigor in the release of new products and discuss the prohibition of aerial spraying,” says Fábio Kummrow from Unifesp (São Paulo State University).

At this point, experts speak in unison: there is no way to avoid the water problem in Brazil, it already affects or will affect everyone, and the only solution is through public policies.

This report is part of the Por Trás do Alimento project, a partnership between Agência Pública and Repórter Brasil to investigate the use of pesticides. Click to read the full coverage on the project’s website.

With information from Repórter Brasil