Water in Brazil
巴西水资源
Nor any drop to drink
无水可喝
Dry weather and a growing population spell rationing
干旱的气候和快速增长的人口迫使水资源限量分配
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.
巴西拥有世界最大淡水储备量。但这些淡水大多分布在人烟稀少的亚马逊并不能缓解巴西由来已久的干旱问题，以至于大部分南方民众都对干旱习以为常。以前圣保罗的农场主习惯将水管伸到地下抽取成加仑的可用水资源，而现在他们开始使用滴灌技术。该技术电梯和城铁中的告示恳请圣保罗居民缩短冲凉时间，重复使用咖啡杯。
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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%.
圣保罗，这一拥有1/5民众以及1/3经济活动的州，正在经历着自1930年以来最严重的干旱。低降水量以及高温带来的高蒸发使得的Cantareira蓄水系统的水位降至12%以下，去年的这个时候，也就是所谓的雨季尾季，其水位达到64%。据悉，改蓄水系统为大约1千万民众供水。
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，州长奥克明警告道自五月开始超额用水将面临罚款，而那些减少用水的可在水费上获得一定折扣。城市会开放3个流域用于支持该州的其他地方，但是由于蓄水池受到干旱的影响，还要满足水力发电产厂的需求，民众对断电的恐慌情绪开始上涨。
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，自来水公司Sabesp希望Cantareira的水位可以在6月12号世界杯揭幕战的一周之后再下降至管道之下，这些管道与蓄水池相连为民众提供自来水。巴西的雨季通常在11月，在那之前，为了度过干旱他们将花费8000万雷阿尔安装设备用以抽取管道下约2000亿升左右的储备水。该公司称这是最后的储备，之前没有动用过，但该项措施足以缓解干旱。一些专家表示将密切关注该举措的作用。
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.
奥克明并没有取消对供水量的限制。圣保罗的某些地区，打开水龙头已经只有水滴了，Sabesp这是日常维护。广泛地断水可能会给现任政府在10月的连任带来不利影响。在他宣布最新措施的一个小时内，一个暴徒纵火烧公交车以示不满。
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.
与大多数巴西民众相比，圣保罗人用水量更大但渗漏较少，渗漏率约为35%而国家的平均值则为39%。Sabesp虽然已经在纽约证劵交易所上市，但仍由国家控股。水利专家也是前世界银行驻巴西负责人的John Briscoe表示，该公司公司经营良好。
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.
干旱的爆发是因为水供应没跟上城市人口增加的速度。由于各级政府权力划分不清，州与联邦条例混乱的问题，政府在储存分配和处理的支出不足。这不仅仅是圣保罗的问题，国家水管理局警告道位于10个大型城市的16个项目必须在2015年前完成，这些项目旨在在未来的十年中解决长期性缺水问题。到现在为止，只完成了5个项目，一些项目甚至还没有开始。短期措施应使现在有水可用，但这些临时措施只保得了一时，保不了一世。 |