Good reason for a more confident outlook
PVC-lined vinyl cisterns are gaining ground as an alternative way of overcoming water shortages in Brazil’s semi-arid region
Written by Danielle Espósito Photos by Carlos Gueller

Francisca Maria de Souza lives in a small house in the Lagoa Grande community in the Bahia municipality of Sobradinho, in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil. Her living conditions are poor, but she forgets those hardships for a while when she sees how green her crops are thanks to the January and February rains, when local rainfall was above 700 mm, more than what the region usually gets all year. Francisca knows that the area is unlikely to see that much rain again. For that reason, she has a vinyl cistern beside her house. “We used to go without water, and had to walk a long ways to fetch it. Now things are getting easier.”

Maria Mercês dos Santos Silva is Francisca’s neighbor in Lagoa Grande. “Life here is very hard. We don’t have much food and even the livestock doesn’t get enough water,” says Maria. “All this green makes us very happy.” She is referring to the results of the January and February rains. There are also two vinyl cisterns brimming with water in the back yard of her house, where she lives with a daughter and a niece.

>> Semi-Arid Region of Brazil

The vinyl water tanks installed outside the homes of Francisca Maria and Maria Mercês are part of the Practical Vinyl Cistern Project, being carried out by Braskem in partnership with Sansuy, one of the petrochemical company’s clients. The project has installed 30 vinyl tanks in Lagoa Grande alone. “This project is well suited to a time when the intelligent use of water is essential, especially in the semi-arid region,” says Bernardo Gradin, the officer responsible for Braskem’s Vinyls Business Unit.

The city of Juazeiro, Bahia, was chosen as the base for this pilot project because of its dry climate. The necessary technical adjustments were made there in order to observe how the cisterns function in practice. Once that stage was completed, the process of approving and marketing the product got underway. The project aims to provide each household with a cistern, replacing the usual practice of having collective tanks that supply water to several nearby families. The collective tanks are made of bricks and mortar, and can store up to 16,000 liters of water. They generally take a long time to build, and vinyl cisterns are easier to install.

Antônio Carlos Dultra, the project’s manager at Sansuy believes that the biggest advantage of using vinyl cisterns is that they are more practical. “The idea of using these cisterns isn’t new. What we have done is innovate and propose an easier and more efficient way of dealing with this question.”

Made using the heat-welding process, these practical vinyl cisterns can store up to 8,000 liters of water. They have a tubular metal structure and are lined with PVC. Their cost is competitive compared with the other models available in the region, they are easy to install and clean, and they can be carried manually and reinstalled several times in many different locations. “The idea is to simplify. All you need to do is dig a hole in the ground and put the equipment in place,” says Antônio Carlos. All of this can be done without using special tools. Any member of the community can help install a vinyl cistern.

This project is also being introduced to the international market, because there are several countries with regions like the semi-arid Brazilian backlands and similar water-storage needs, including Mexico, Venezuela, Angola, South Africa and India.

By producing and selling vinyl cisterns, Braskem and Sansuy are also working to help improve the quality of life of a segment of the Brazilian population. As a result, the project is bringing its marketing characteristics into line with a situation that needs urgent positive action. Sérgio Kertész, the Braskem officer responsible for Vinyls Marketing, underscores, “This project is an investment in innovation aimed at developing a viable product that provides a competitive, practical and efficient product for communities that are suffering from drought.”