The Riverside community in Belem suffers from drinking water cuts during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

Maria Ivanide, 64 years old, was born and continues to this day on the island of Combo, in Belém, the capital of Pará, which is hosting the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) on Monday the 10th of this month. When she was a child, she and her family would take water from the river and drink it. He confirms that there was no problem at all. But now everything has changed, the island is not the same. With the increasing population of the riverside community, and the intensification of tourism that has become predatory and polluting the area, this water can no longer be consumed.

Without support from the city council over the years, she says residents need to organize themselves to always have drinking water at home — whether buying it from a well a 20-minute boat ride away, or searching for mineral water in town. Without this water security, there are many problems.

There are five people in your house. They usually consume about 100 liters of water per week. She does it like this: She buys three 20-liter gallons of water from the well once a week and uses it for cooking. To be safer, always mix water with hypochlorite. Of mineral water, which is more expensive, buy at least two gallons of this type per week.

Values vary. Regarding water from the well, if one brings it by boat, the price of a 20-litre “potaja” as they call it is 4 Brazilian reals. But there is also a man who passes through the igarapés every week – small waterways in the Amazon that are the paths that connect the community – selling containers of water. He goes door-to-door on specific days, and if you buy directly from him, the price is R$5. The vendor also sells mineral water at R$12 per 20 litres. If not this way, residents need to get mineral water in Belém.

The seller visits homes two days a week. However, unexpected events happen, and sometimes it ends up not going through and we are not notified. There may come a day when a family needs to replenish their water supply and has been relying on that, which is annoying.

“It happens a lot when we run out of water and we have no way to get more,” Maria says. “And then we have to find a way, because water is water, you know. Sometimes we can die from water, right. I actually drank from the river when I was thirsty. Not for several days, not for several hours. But I did fill a jug, put water on the fire, added a few drops of hypochlorite and drank it.”

And all this is already part of the release “a light“From the story. Now canoes and speedboats have powerful engines and the journey is fast. But, before, they were either rowing boats or ‘boo boo boo’ boats (with a simple motor, where a small rope is pulled, and the ship makes a noise similar to the way it is read in the nickname it received). At that time, a 20-minute trip would take an hour and a half.

What about water for other household uses? Maria’s house, like most of the island’s residents, has a water tank that pumps water directly from the river. This is the water they use to wash dishes, wash clothes, take a bath, and other similar tasks. But in the Piriketacara River, as in other streams, the water is brown. To make the matter more clear, residents expect home treatment with hypochlorite and aluminum sulphate, another chemical compound used to remove impurities from water and purify it. Everything related to the water there is difficult.

A resident of a riverside community near Belém describes the lack of drinking water: “I actually drank from the river”:

Lack of support

The feeling is that the city council has forgotten about the community. “We have no support,” Maria says. “They never brought us gallons of water… We bought everything. Something like that, for someone to donate gallons to us, we never got.”

What has changed the reality of society more effectively, even if at a slow pace, are social projects from organizations and companies that propose improvements to the population in infrastructure and even with training on different fronts.

One of these projects generated high expectations from Maria, as well as from other community residents the report spoke to. It is a project that can finally improve the relationship between some riverside residents and water consumption.

In this case, it is an initiative that is part of the Regulariza program of the Government of Pará, which works in partnership with the city of Belém, businesses and the Institute for Forestry and Biodiversity Development of the State of Pará (Ideflor-Bio). According to the government, ten cisterns have been installed on the island as part of a rainwater harvesting system, some of which are in public areas such as schools.

Initial expectations were that they would all be delivered by the second half of October. The closest to Maria is the one being built at the back of the Combo Women’s Extractive Association (AME), which is close to her home, and has not yet been delivered – at least as of Sunday the 9th.

As residents who are closely following the work said, work on AME has been intensified recently amid the COP30 movement and the project is expected to be delivered within the days of the event.

Life amid tourism on Kombo Island

Electricity arrived on Compo Island in 2011. Before that, they did not have refrigerators and it was necessary to fill thermal boxes with ice weekly to preserve food and be able to drink cold water in the heat of Belém. Anyone with a refrigerator had to pay the high costs of a generator that only worked during the early hours of the morning. Lighting of wooden houses depended on lamps. These are just two examples, but thinking about their everyday impacts really shows how different everything is.

There was a major struggle to access the electricity grid. Residents say they had to go to long meetings with authorities and companies, sometimes lasting entire days, and even went without eating during the day to avoid leaving their sites. They insisted, but they did not believe that one day they would press a button and get light. So that everything worked out, and the party was great. Now, they say that if they are cut off from electricity for a few moments for some reason, the pain sets in and they don’t even remember how they lived for so many years without light.

But the ceremony was not accompanied only by joy. While the move was very important for the development and well-being of the riverside community on Kombu Island, it was also a milestone in the transformation of local tourism, according to residents.

Compo Island is an Environmental Protection Area (APA) and since it is an Amazonian “paradise” near Belem, it has some traditional restaurants that have been welcoming tourists for years. But what can be counted on one finger has gotten out of control. Even without drinking water, and with the increased demand for tourists, dozens of restaurants began to be established along the island’s beaches. Residents who have lived there all their lives say they have no idea how many projects there are on average.

To get to Combo Island, you have to take a speedboat in Belem from Ruy Barata Waterway Terminal, on Praça Princesa Isabel. The round trip costs R$24, which can be paid in cash, debit or BEX. This Sunday, the ninth of this month, before the thirtieth session of the Conference of the Parties, the crossing was crowded with Brazilians and foreigners, and there were many people at the entrance of the place handing out flyers suggesting restaurants to visitors.

Restaurants want to attract customers from the beginning because there are so many options. The person must say, when boarding the boat, what specific point he wants to go to – and there he will be dropped off by the boat. Venue proposals have become increasingly exotic to attract clients, ranging from displays to resort-style structures with swimming pools – even though the facilities are actually located on the river.

Most restaurants have their own docks that receive boats every hour. As residents said, the flow is high every weekend, not just during the COP.

The search for a share of this audience has led people to clear forests and build irregular projects all over the island, riverside residents say. Moreover, not all establishments care about the waste and environmental impacts caused by intense tourism.

Previously, in addition to the power of açaí and cocoa, the riverside residents of Kombu Island feasted on the fish and shrimp they caught, which became more difficult every year. Animals appear in fewer and fewer numbers. Last year, for example, residents said shrimp had “disappeared” from the river. They don’t know if it’s because of pollution, if the fish are disturbed by the rough waters caused by the intense flow of boats and jet skis, or if it’s because of the climate crisis itself. Or even if it’s a combination of factors. What they know is that they feel the impact.

Security is also no longer the same. Residents report that thefts have increased in the area, such as entire speedboats, with engines equivalent to the price of popular cars. This insecurity has restricted the freedom of movement of riverside residents, who now need to consider some measures that were previously taken with complete freedom.

the land I contacted Belém and the government of Pará seeking information about the number of active establishments on Cumbo Island, operating among the riverside houses, and on cases of deforestation, environmental violations and other crimes linked to the expansion of tourism in the area. The report also asked about the community’s water situation and the delay in delivering the tanker. The space remains open and will be updated if you return.

In October, the Municipality of Belém began the “Restaurant Inspection and Orientation Course on Cumbo Island” with a focus on combating irregular disposal of waste and sewage into rivers. The idea is that inspections will be carried out on a monthly basis in order to protect the island’s water resources and biodiversity.

“In the three restaurants initially visited, the inspection team found irregularities, such as lack of adequate water and wastewater treatment, with the lack of proper septic tanks and even direct disposal of chlorinated swimming pool water into rivers,” the city hall wrote in a memo published in October, indicating that it had summoned the establishments to provide explanations.