Of the ten finalist projects by Brazilian NGOs for the R$ 1 million prize of the Challenge Social Impact contest, promoted by Google Brazil, three are from non-governmental organizations that work in the Amazon: Associação O Eco and Institutos Socioambiental (ISA) and Mamirauá . Online voting can be done until Thursday (8) at this internet address g.co/desafiobrasil.
According to Google, there will be four winners of the award, with three chosen by a panel of judges and one by popular vote. Projects were selected based on four criteria: community impact, innovation, feasibility and scalability. Each of the four winners will receive a Global Impact Award to take the project off the ground and make it a reality.
Water quality mapping
The project of the O Eco Association is from the Info Amazônia Network. The idea is to form, with more than 80 connected sensors, a mapping of the local water quality in sources of capture in four different capitals: Manaus (AM), Belém (PA), Porto Velho (RO) and Rio Branco (AC).
With more than 4.2 million inhabitants, the population of the Amazon, which is home to the largest river in the world, the Amazon, suffers from a lack of indicators on the contamination of its drinking water sources.
In two years, the Rede Info Amazônia project plans to benefit this population with information, via SMS, on water quality, reducing diseases caused by water contamination and environmental degradation.
The Riffle sensor inspired O Eco’s project to monitor water quality (Photo: PublicLab.org)
Gustavo Faleiros, coordinator of the Rede Info Amazônia project, says that the capitals of the Amazon are the first among all others when it comes to access to piped water.
“While the 2010 Census showed that in Vitória (ES) only 52 households were registered without this public service, in Manaus (AM) the total reaches almost 33 thousand, in Belém (PA), 24 thousand. One obviously has to ask where these people get their water to drink and bathe in? We know that Manaus depends on artesian wells in richer areas and water holes in poorer areas. But do we know what the quality of this water is? Did not say.
According to the coordinator of the O Eco project, the water quality indices are only available from the sanitation companies and refer to points of capture and water reserve. He believes that, with an initiative such as Rede Info Amazônia, it is possible to start a large-scale discussion about urbanization and the lack of infrastructure in the main cities of the Amazon.
“For that, we want to use low-cost environmental quality sensors. They can measure, for example, changes in the conductivity of water and this is important as a first indicator of the presence of possible pollutants”, stated Gustavo Faleiros.
Mini mills in sustainable production
The Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) project that competes for the Google Brazil award are the Mini Open Source Plants. The plants will be used to produce forest products and generate sustainability in the Amazon. In the last two years, the region has lost 2.2 million square kilometers of forest to deforestation and fires.
According to ISA, the mini-plants project is fundamental and strategic to ensure the integrity of the territories, in addition to updating and dynamizing technology and the forest economy. The project for the construction of mini plants for processing non-timber forest products includes activities such as Brazil nuts, babassu oils, nuts, andiroba, cocoa butter, cupuaçu, drying peppers, fruit jams, dehydrated fruits, processing forest seeds and rubber.
Forest artisans will benefit from the mini-mills project (Photo: ISA)
According to the Instituto Socioambiental, the project will be carried out in ten existing production units and from them will start to generate materials so that other organizations in the Amazon can be inspired and replicate the proposed technologies with the necessary adaptations in each location.
“The Open Source Mini Plants project combines traditional and scientific knowledge. If we win this award, the idea is to invest in the improvement of the mini-plants that already exist, which reach ten, being able to inspire another 20 plants, reaching 2 thousand people”, said Marcelo Salazar, deputy director of ISA.
According to ISA, in two years the mini-plants will directly benefit 41 indigenous peoples and extractive populations in the Brazilian Amazon, generating a model that can be replicated in hundreds of communities in the Pan-Amazon region and other populations.
Solar ice machine in isolated communities
The Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, based in Tefé, Amazonas, competes in the Google Brazil challenge with the Solar Ice Machine project. The machine does not use batteries and is made to preserve food in isolated communities in the Amazon, in addition to preserving the fish trade in the region, with solar energy.
According to the Mamirauá Institute, residents of isolated communities do not have access to electricity and suffer from the worst Human Development Index in the country (between 0.418 and 0.699). Improving the quality of life comes up against the lack of electricity to preserve food for consumption.
The Solar Ice Machine project, according to the environmental organization, has a partnership with the Institute of Energy and Environment of the University of São Paulo. In the case of fish production, the machine could conserve the fish to be sold in urban centers. Some communities are 18 hours away by river travel from the cities.
“Most of the families produce the ice using small diesel thermoelectric plants, which only operate four hours a day. With the solar ice machine, families will be able to conserve their fish and sell their produce in the city, increasing family income by 12%,” said Dávila Corrêa, project coordinator at Instituto Mamirauá.
The institute says that in two years, the Solar Ice Machine project will help to increase the income of more than 100 families by 12% and will promote training for innovation to spread to the other 250 communities, about 10,000 people, of the Reserves. of Sustainable Development Mamirauá and Amanã.
Fish production will benefit from the solar energy machine (Photo: Mamirauá)
