Rio Gravatai 3H Project
An exciting and massive project to clean up and restore a heavily polluted river basin in southern Brazil
A project led by Rotary Clubs, local and worldwide, in collaboration with the local and regional authorities, NGOs and major support from Rotary Foundation
River Gravatai Basin
The Rio Gravatai is an 80km long river basin with the final 20 kms being heavily polluted as it passes
through the cities of Cachoeirinha, Alvorada and Gravatai before discharging into Lake Guiaba in
Rio Grande do Sul the southernmost state in Brazil, en route to the Atlantic Ocean.
The River is of central importance to millions who rely on it for drinking water and to carry away their sewage and industrial waste. The Rio Gravatai and its tributaries also irrigates large areas of intensive agriculture.
The Rio Gravatai is distressed by over abstraction by farmers in summer and by agricultural, industrial and sewage pollution, and dies (becomes eutrophic) in hot weather, killing the fish and causing a great stinks. Bankside communities and industry use it as a dump. Swamp drainage results in silting of its channels, and flooding of the lower reaches in the wet season. Riverside trees felled for firewood or building material cause bank erosion. The urban stretches of the river are an eyesore and unusable as a source of drinking water.
This English Language Website
The Riogravatai.info English language website is mostly a translation of the Portuguese
www.aguape.org.br
website with some additional geographcal and explanational material for non-Brazilians.
The Portuguese 
button on the right will take you directly
to the Portuguese language website.
Webmaster of this English language site www.riogravatai.info
Rtn John Worley johnaworley@aol.com
