Monday 2nd May

Today we had an early start for a City Tour - some of the highlights.....

Visit to Sanuraio do S. Coraçao de Jesus. This is a Santuary which is very important to the region.... it is not a cathedral but may be named one following the end of the process of beautification for Padre Reus - who will become a saint. Many people believe that the Padre heals them... and the sanuraio is full of benches which have been made as presents by believers as a symbol of their thanks.

We visited the centre of the city - including a monument commemorating the first Germanic settlement - the city has this influence still althrough it seems to be more prominant in the neighbouring city of Novo Hamburgo.

Outside the Sanctuary

Panning video inside the Church... with a very striking crucifiction



It was taking too long - so we had to move on in the end....

 After a tour of the Church we visited the site of the first Germanic settlement.. 1824. Around this period there was about 10 or so years of independance of Rio Grande de Sul from the rest of Brazil. It is becoming more apparent this state is very much independantly minded and has connections with Northern Argentina and Uruyaguy.... Brazil as we have been told a number of times is a nations within nations.

The historic centre of Sao Leopoldo

The badges have been very well recieved

Chat with the Mayor of Sao Leopoldo

We visited City hall and an audience with the Mayor of the city where we talked about the issues of pollution which have blighted the River Sinos, and the efforts that the city is taking to preserve a large parkland and reduce industrial pollution. There is still a considerable amount of sewage going into the river - Brazil has only relatively recently introduced legislation in this area (think it was last 10 years) but the situation is improving (according to the mayor)

There was some conflicting information regarding industries contribution... the mayor indicating the there is now 0% pollution from industries... whereas our later presentation indicated that there were still issues with pollution on the river... perhaps the mayor referring to compliance with legislation which perhaps is not as strong as some might like.

Before all of this we had a presentation by CENTL SENAI an NGO working with industry to promote cleaner production, training experts in environmental technologies and methodologies, capacity building and other such projects. The organisation has worked with a number of international partners including some in the UK. We questioned her about various issues, including water use, and the relatively low uptake of Solar technology which has been really notable from my point of view, apparently the technology is still expensive in Latin America and it seems that simple solar water heating systems have simply not taken off.... and there is no manafacturing.

After lunch at Sociedade Orpheu - apparently the oldest society in the whole of Brazil, we visited the University for a talk on the Comitesinos project. This is a partnership of NGOs, civil society, Public Bodies and Industry who have interests in the River Sinos Basin which runs about 200km long, with a total of 3,400km of tributies, covering a watershed area of 4,000km2. There are many issues affecting this River Basin including:

• Public Water Supply
• 1.2 million people are dependant on extraction for the water source
• Rice intensive farming is common
• The rivers within the state are the states responsibility - so The River Sinos is the responsability of R Grande de Sul - whereas perhaps the Amazon which covers a number if states recieve help from the federal government (not sur  about this)

We head about a number of impressive projects, including mapping of impacts along the whole basin - by a team of volunteers with GPS devices. There are almost 2,000 mapped Sewage effects... with this and clearence of vegetation close to the river (the regulations are 30m of vegatation must be left between the river bank and the cleared fields) are the most pressing issues... amongst many.

We recieved a copy of the presentation.

http://www.comitesinos.com.br/

In the evening we were presented and were really well looked after by the Rotary Clube whose name escapes me! Then I went and had a chat with one of our Translators who worked for an NGO for a period of time... he outlined some of their concerns with the plantations of Euculyptus and some of the other environmental issues... giving a different perspective from that which we have recieved - althrough companies have been very honest with us in my opinion with their issues... namely because we have visited those who have done much to address environmental concerns...

Coffee will never be the same again after this trip... not a costa or american chain in site and all the better for it!

This is the oldest Environmental NGO in Brazil apparently, we met a former president Tiago who translated for us...