#PowerOfHope: Over 300 families in a village in Brazil now have clean water supply even amid power cuts

Dubai - A solar-powered sewage treatment system, the first of its kind in the area, was also connected at the community's only school.

What is the price of a smile? Now multiply that by 71 million. For, that's the number of lives that the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives touched and transformed in 2019. It is more than just a cold statistic; it is the number of sighs of relief, tears of joy and stories of gratitude from around the world. In this series, Khaleej Times showcases eight people whose lives MBRGI changed last year through the power of hope. Part 4 of an 8-part series
The Barragem village in the Tenonde Pora territory, located in the southernmost region of Brazil's Sao Paulo municipality, is home to more than 300 families from the indigenous Guarani Mbya people. For decades, villagers have struggled to secure clean drinking water, heavily relying on a single, distant treatment station to meet their needs. Due to constant power outages and insufficient purification systems, the water supplied by the station is often polluted by the time it reaches the village.
To compensate, villagers resorted to a nearby spring, which poses its own health and environmental risks. The absence of a sewage treatment system subjects the groundwater feeding into the spring to a sewage leak at any moment, causing an environmental and health disaster.
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment (MBRCH) installed solar-powered purification units at the village's main station and nearby spring to ensure a steady supply of clean drinking water to residents, even amid power cuts.
Running on UV light, the units purify the water, making it drinkable within seconds. A solar-powered sewage treatment system - the first of its kind in the area - was also connected at the community's only school.
The establishment's delegation remained in the village to ensure public health and safety that might have been affected by water scarcity. The team conducted free-of-charge vision, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and hepatitis screening tests for more than 3,000 people. As part of the initiative, the team also distributed hundreds of food baskets.
In 2019, the MBRCH's various projects and initiatives touched the lives of approximately 2.6 million people.
In collaboration with the UAE Water Aid Foundation (Suqia), the establishment provided clean drinking water to several communities in remote areas of the world, benefitting 543,783 people in 19 countries. It rolled out field projects that included drilling dozens of wells and developing crucial water supply and purification infrastructure.
Dedicated to empowering vulnerable communities across the world, the establishment's work ranges from providing urgent aid to people stricken by natural disasters, crises or conflict, to supporting education, building schools and implementing developmental initiatives to empower young people. 
In 2019, the MBRGI's humanitarian aid and relief projects and initiatives touched the lives of more than 17 million people across the world, with a total spend of Dh262 million.
 

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