“In an investment of more than $330 million, the Novo Rio Pinheiros program cleaned up the river that runs through 25 kilometers of the city of São Paulo. The program began with the Zavuvus stream, next to a road that carries more than 350,000 vehicles a day and the city’s first entry point to the Pinheiros River.
More than 7,000 homes in the region now have basic sanitation, and the residents can explore new sources of income and experiences with family members…
The work to clean the river up began in 2019. By the end of 2022, a 280-kilometer sewage network had been installed, and two million residents stopped dumping sewage in the Pinheiros River. Along the Zavuvus stream alone, 173,000 residents of southern communities benefited from the sewage-free water…
With the completion of the clean-up, the riverbank is more pleasant and attracts additional leisure and tourism activities. Now bikers who ride along the 21-kilometer bike path benefit from the cleaner air.
The program’s goal to ensure that biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) does not exceed 30 mg/l has been reached throughout the Zavuvus stream, which runs for 7.8 kilometers, according to a 2022 survey. BOD is one of the main indexes of organic pollution assessment and simply evaluates how the river is ‘breathing’ on its surface.”
