From Carioca to Guandu (Part 2)

Amidst this scenario of profound changes in the countryside and in the city, Rio suffers once again from a lack of water. The city’s springs are no longer sufficient to supply the growing population, which still depends on the Massif of Tijuca as the only source of water (ALMEIDA, 2010, p. 20).

Faced with this prognosis of water crisis, the imperial government signed a contract, in 1876, with the engineer Antonio Gabrielli. From then on, he would be responsible for organizing commissions in search of rivers and sources outside the territorial limits of the city, especially those whose springs originated in the Serra do Tinguá (Nova Iguaçu). Thus, between 1877 and 1889, the waters of the D’Ouro, Santo Antônio and São Pedro rivers were channeled.

The supply crises that plagued Rio de Janeiro at the end of the 19th century would take on more serious contours before the drought faced by the Cariocas at the beginning of 1889. Added to the water shortage, the city also faced an outbreak of yellow fever. The growing popular dissatisfaction with this scenario was already a symptom of the Empire's decadence.

In the midst of this chaotic situation, the engineer André Gustavo Paulo de Frontin - a declared supporter of republican ideals - proposed as a palliative solution to the water crisis the provisional catchment of water from Serra Velha (Tinguá) to the Pedregulho Reservoir (Benfica). The boldness of the proposal, however, was not due to the grandiosity of the project - which included the channeling of water over 18 kilometers - but to the time stipulated to carry it out: six days.

Faced with such a serious problem that had been dragging on for years, the possibility of such an immediate resolution put in check the efficiency and competence of the already unstable imperial government. The support of government opponents to Frontin's proposal and the repercussion of the case in newspapers at the time made this an emblematic episode of the political-social crisis that would lead to the end of the Empire and the proclamation of the Republic in November of that same year. (KURY, 2020, p. 94-95).

A little later, during the first decade of the 20th century, the Xerém and Mantiquira rivers would also be domesticated in order to complement the supply of Rio’s population (KURY, 2020, p. 94-95).

Parallel to the channeling of new rivers, several works were carried out in order to optimize the distribution and treatment of water, such as the construction of settling tanks, reservoirs and dams.

In addition, the decrease in the number of water workers - people who used to transport water from public fountains to houses - on the city's streets was already evident, either as a reflection of the end of the slave trade, or due to the start of direct water supply to households (KURY, 2020, p. 65).

Although the improvements in water catchment and distribution throughout the turn of the 19th to the 20th century – when the rivers from Serra do Tinguá were channelled – have resulted in a substantial development of the supply system, the fact is that, since then, such distribution would occur in an uneven way.

The new possibilities of providing water at home translated into a greater commitment by the government to quality and storage, which resulted in new practices of controlling supply and consumption.

The increasing rationalization and modernization of distribution flows resulted in new charging and taxation practices, which would connect the supply to the purchasing power of applicants and consumers. In 1898 the installation of hydrometers began, due to a law enacted the previous year that would regulate the collection of fees (ANA, 2007, p. 165). Thus, the distribution of water spouts would end up favoring the wealthier parishes to the detriment of the more densely populated regions (ALMEIDA, 2010, p. 28-29).

Over the years, the Guandu Water Treatment Station would undergo a series of interventions and improvements that enabled it to have a current flow of 45,000 liters of water per second. This feat earned it a place in the Guinness Book as “the largest drinking water treatment plant in the world in continuous production” (CEDAE, p. 3). It was up to the Guandu River, with all the greatness of engineering applied to its capture, the solution to supply the city of Rio de Janeiro.

When this image was taken, the children used to refresh themselves at the beautiful fountain in Praça da Bandeira. Ordered in Austria, the fountain arrived in Brazil in 1878, having been installed in the then Largo do Paço, now Praça XV. It remained there until the construction of the Perimetral viaduct at the end of the 1950s. In 1960, it was transferred to Praça da Bandeira, the location of the postcard shown here. With the demolition of the Monroe Palace in 1976, the old fountain was moved to that location, in Cinelândia, where it remains today.

The fountains that we still find scattered around the city's streets and squares are the bastions of Rio resilience that oscillates between abundance and scarcity.

O Chafariz das Musas era do Largo da Lapa e, em 1895, foi transferido para o Jardim Botânico.

From the water sources that sometimes gushed, sometimes dried, we inherited the aesthetic concreteness and the memory of a time when life was pulsating around these monuments.