Ilhabela, on São Paulo state’s northern coast, will receive a desalination plant to improve drinking water supply in the municipality. The announcement was made Tuesday (9) by Sabesp, which will invest R$56.4 million in the project. The full project is expected to be completed in three years and will be the third facility of its kind in Brazil.The company will use reverse osmosis technology to treat brackish water collected from the Ribeirão Água Branca, at a point closer to where the river meets the sea. The plant is expected to initially produce 20 liters of drinking water per second —a 20% increase in supply— and could reach 40 liters per second at full operation.
The project will benefit neighborhoods such as Piuva, Barra Velha, Ponta das Canas and Green Park. Currently, only 69.96% of the island’s population is served by water supply services, compared with a state average of 96.6%. During peak season, the population of 35,000 can triple, worsening shortages.
Brazil’s other two desalination plants are located in Fernando de Noronha (Pernambuco state), with a capacity of 20 liters per second after a 2021 upgrade, and in Ceará, where Cagece is building Latin America’s largest desalination project, with a capacity of 1,000 liters per second.
