The Project
The damage that mankind has caused to the environment began to be a topic and motive of concern at the beginning of the 20th century. But only at the change of the millennium did entities and world-class organizations begin to publicize alarming data regarding just how much nature has suffered with the lack of clear rules and regulations involving mankind's interaction with the environment. The reality, upon the mass publication of information, contrary to what was hoped for, paints a grim picture worse than expected. Global warming is a sad reality; mankind increasingly destroys forests for urbanization and for extraction of raw materials, accumulating more and more trash in the process. This is an antagonistic scenario, since mankind takes from nature itself its most basic forms of survival.
Stimulated by this thinking, a commission of rotarians, spearheaded by ex-governor Eliseu Gonçalves da Silva, began to mount an audacious project that would call attention to the importance of caring for the environment and preserving our natural resources. The idea, born from within the ranks of the Rotary Club Cachoeirinha, focused on one of the most precious resources of its region: the Gravataí River. As the people involved began to search for grant money, they became increasingly aware of the lack of concrete actions directed towards preserving this river. Contrary to expectations, they verified waste dumps, toxic trash of both domestic and industrial origin, without any kind of specialized treatment. Besides this, the growth of its riverbank communities was damaging the riverside environment. As time passed, more persons and Rotary Clubs joined in this effort. These people molded an idea and project whose goal would be not just to stop the degradation of the river, but also to recover its health. Work on the project began three years ago focusing on the cities of Cachoeirinha, Gravataí and Alvorada. The Rotary Clubs who partnered in this project saw the wisdom of requesting grants to support their idea via the Rotary Foundation, which destines significant sums of grant money for initiatives that contemplate actions in the three areas of health, humanity, and hunger (3H). In March 2008, the auditor of the Rotary Foundation, Marcelo Haick, member of the RC Santos Praias (District 4420) visited District 4670 to become aware of the project and spent two days conducting an extensive audit with great knowledge and competence.
After concluding a series of studies, meetings, debates, and partnerships with ONGs and various branches of government, the project was approved by the Rotary Foundation on October 31, 2008. The news was received with great joy, but above all with great zeal, because the project will last for three years and should, ideally, continue long after the international monetary resources have been expended. The project's systematic actions were divided into four modules: tree planting, cleanup mobilization, environmental patrolling, and education and consciousness-raising.
EDUCATION AND CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
The Aguapé Project seeks to inform and make the community in general aware of actions that interfere with the quality of the water of the Gravataí River, and provoke changes in environment-related behaviors of the riverbank populations. This module is developed in schools and community centers as well as areas directly affected by the Gravatai River.
TREE PLANTING
The Aguapé Project will collaborate in the increase of environmental patrolling and policing along the Gravataí River via donations of equipment to be utilized in these services, as well as collaborating with information and monitoring using a team of volunteers.
ENVIRONMENTAL PATROLLING
The Aguapé Project will collaborate in the increase of environmental patrolling and policing along the Gravataí River via donations of equipment to be utilized in these services, as well as collaborating with information and monitoring using a team of volunteers.