mrsp. pollution control and slum upgrading pollution control projects provide sewerage as well as wastewater treatment, green areas, and promote community awareness. since 1986, the municipal government of são paulo has carried out slum upgrading interventions in 81 slums, benefiting over 87,000 households, and currently it is pressing ahead with slum upgrading works in more than 27 communities which will benefit around 72,000 households. the municipality of são bernardo do campo also has broad experience in slum rehabilitation, having undertaken civil works and related interventions in 62 slums, benefiting approximately 18,000 households. their experience in slum upgrading led it being awarded a best practice and local leadership program award by un-habitat. the tietê project was launched in september 1991 by the state government launched the tietê project to clean up the rivers and reservoirs of the são paulo area. it involved the construction of sewerage and municipal wastewater treatment plants by sabesp as well as the construction of industrial wastewater treatment plants. the project has four phases, of which the first two are completed. the third phase will end in 2015, and the fourth phase should run from 2013 to 2018 with the aim of universal treatment of wastewater. during the three first phases us$2.65 billion were invested or are in the process of being invested. 4,450 km of collecting networks will be installed, 1,135 km of interceptors, 740,000 new connections to residences and three new wastewater treatment plants. foreign financing was obtained from the inter-american development bank, the world bank and jica from japan. the fourth phase of the tietê project will cost us$1.9 billion. sabesp has approached kfw (germany), afd (french development agency), caf (corporação andina de fomento), ifc, besides commercial banks such as morgan stanley, santander, itaú, banco do brasil, bradesco, hsbc, and caixa economica for financing. reducing water losses sabesp has implemented a ten-year program (2008–2018) to control and reduce non-revenue water by enhancing infrastructure, combating fraud and illegal connections, and improving staff training. so far there has been no comparable effort to reduce non-revenue water in municipalities that receive water from sabesp and distribute it themselves, where levels of nrw are higher than in municipalities where sabesp distributes water. water reuse the reuse of treated wastewater is still a novel concept in brazil due to absence of a proper legal framework. only 2 percent of companies reuse treated wastewater, despite the fact that it costs only 8 percent of the conventional rate (though transport costs can be significantly higher from the wastewater treatment plant to the company). in 1997 the brazilian association of technical standards (abnt) defined instructions and parameters (nbr 13969) for wastewater reuse, including the level of treatment required based on the reuse activities. federal resolution 54/2005 of the national council of water resources states that direct non-potable treated wastewater can be used in landscape irrigation, washing public streets, fire fighting, agricultural production, industrial activities and environmental projects. currently a draft resolution is under consideration by the são paulo secretariats of health, environment, and water supply, sanitation and energy on urban wastewater reuse; however, as of 2009 the state had no legal framework on this issue. only the municipality of são paulo, within the mrsp, had issued its own regulations mandating the use of reused water for the washing of streets, sidewalks and plazas and irrigating parks, gardens and sports fields. in november 2012 sabesp and foz brazil, a subsidiary of the conglomerate odebrecht, inaugurated the largest industrial water reuse project in brazil, aquapolo ambiental. it provides 1 cubic meter per second to the petrochemical complex capuava in mauá in the eastern part of the metropolitan region through a 17 km pipeline. the cost of the reclaimed water is lower than drinking water, and drinking water that was used at the complex is now made available for municipal use. tapping new water sources: the macro-metropolis plan one of the long-term plans to provide more water to the metropolitan area of são paulo is the macro-metropolis plan, which covers three metropolitan regions: metro são paulo; the meso-region of campinas with 3.6 million inhabitants (2005 est.) and 49 cities; and the coastal metropolitan region south of são paulo. overall this macro-metropolis includes 152 municipalities with 30 million inhabitants. the tentative plans to supply this region with water consider adding 80m3/s of water supply to the area. a water diversion project, the sao lourenco water producing system, is to bring water from the iguape river in the ribeira valley 80 km south of mrsp. the $823 million system to provide 4.7 cubic meter per second will be developed under a public-private partnership. in early 2013 bidding was underway and the system is expected to be operational in 2017. water conservation average per capita water use in são paulo is about 180 liters per day, with large variations between the rich and poor. this compares to an average water use of less than 120 liter per capita and day in much richer germany. some brazilian observers, such as aldo rebouças, an engineer at the university of são paulo, have argued that 100 liter per capita would be sufficient and that there is substantial scope for water conservation in são paulo making expensive new projects to bring water from far away unnecessary. sabesp has argued that per capita water consumption has already decreased 20 percent over six years. watershed protection to address declining water yields and deteriorating water quality in the cantareira system in brazil's atlantic forest, the nature conservancy supports brazil's first water producer program. as part of the program the extrema municipality in the piracicaba watershed directs funds collected from water users to pay farmers and ranchers who protect or restore riparian forests on their lands. landowners are earning about $28 per acre per year for the water their forests are producing. financing domestic financing growth acceleration program (programa de aceleração de crescimento - pac). the pac is an ambitious federal program designed to direct investment to various important infrastructure sectors. key pac investment areas include water supply and sanitation, slum and urban upgrading and housing. pac funds are being provided to state and municipal governments on both a loan and grant basis. in the mrsp, joint requests for pac resources have been made to the federal government by the state secretariat for water and energy, the são paulo municipal government and the state housing and urban development company (cdhu – with particular emphasis on slum and urban upgrading, expansion of solid waste collection systems and resettlement of families. water abstraction charges. it is expected that beginning in 2010 charges for the abstraction of water will be introduced in the alto tietê. revenues from these charges are expected to be used to finance priority investments to rehabilitate the watershed. revenues from these charges are expected to be in the order of us$25 million, which is only the fraction of the annual investments of sabesp which stand at us$700 million. programa córrego limpo is a r$200 million sabesp-municipality of são paulo program initiated in 2007 to remove wastewater pollution from 100 urban streams throughout the mrsp. as of 2010, 96 streams have been cleaned up. the pacto das águas (water deal) is a program initiated in 2009 by the state secretariat of environment to engage all 645 municipalities in the state, encouraging them to set goals for improving water management including sanitation and headwaters and spring protection. the program was accompanied by media and educational campaigns, as well as workshops for capacity building. external financing external financing is provided by the world bank, the inter-american development bank, japan international cooperation agency and other external agencies. inter-american development bank on-going projects: phase three of the tiete river cleanup program - a project approved in october 2009 for which the inter-american development bank made available $600 million in form of a loan. the purpose of the project is to increase the rate of wastewater collection and treatment in the mrsp and thereby to restore the water quality of the tiete river. in december 2010 the idb approved another us$115.7m loan to support a us$200m project "to recover the environmental and social function of the alto río tiete", with investments in são paulo, guaraulhos, itaquaquecetuba, bridle, suzano, mogi das cruzes, biritiba-mirim and salesopolis. in september 2009 the idb approved a us$0.75m grant to support the regulatory agency for sanitation and energy in são paulo. completed projects: tietê river decontamination (1999–2008) – a us$1.5 billion sabesp program financed by the inter-american development bank and bndes to expand wastewater collection and treatment in mrsp – with a focus on the wastewater system's trunk infrastructure and treatment works, as well as service expansion in formal areas of the city. japan study on integrated plan of environmental improvement of billings reservoir (initiated in 2008) – a japan international cooperation agency-financed initiative with sabesp and the municipal government of são bernardo do campo to study the expansion of sanitation infrastructure throughout the municipality. jica has stated its intention to invest up to $100 million in the actions identified by the study to reduce pollution of the billings reservoir, including expansion of wastewater infrastructure, remediation of a deactivated sanitary landfill and expansion of green areas and parks. world bank on-going projects: the mananciais program for integrated water management in metropolitan são paulo (approved in 2009) - a $283 million project co-financed by world bank loans (us$131m), the state government ($ 57m), sabesp ($ 25m) and the two participating municipalities ($ 26m). its objectives are: (i) to protect and maintain the quality and reliability of the mrsp's water resources; (ii) to improve the quality of life of the poor populations residing in key targeted urban river basins in mrsp; and (iii) to strengthen institutional capacity and improve metropolitan management and coordination in water resources management, water pollution control, land-use policy and basic service provision. it does so by supporting "institutional capacity building", urban upgrading, environmental protection and recovery, as well as "integrated water supply and sanitation". specifically, the project will include reforestation, the creation of green spaces and protected areas, the "urbanization of slums", housing for resettled people, water quality monitoring, environmental education, the preparation of land use laws as well as "studies on metropolitan governance". the program has four phases. the first two phases, approved in 2009, included loans for the state of são paulo and sabesp. the third and fourth phases, approved in 2012, include loans for the municipalities of são bernardo do campo in the drainage area of the billings reservoir and guarulhos in the upper tiete drainage area. reagua is a project jointly financed by the world bank and the state of são paulo to recover water quantity and quality in the five most critical watersheds in the state, including the alto tietê. it will focus on activities that increase the availability of water within the state, including reducing non-revenue water, promoting the rational use of water, constructing sanitation systems and incentivizing the reuse of treated wastewater. a usd 64.5 million loan to support the project was approved by the world bank in may 2010. completed projects: são paulo water quality and pollution control project (1994–2000) – a $387 million project co-financed by the state and the world bank, which initiated the learning of the guarapiranga river basin, implemented the institutional capacity to manage the basin in an environmentally sustainable manner and improved the quality of life of residents of the slums and illegal settlements in the basin by providing them with water supply and sanitation services. among the achievements of the guarapiranga project (along with other similar programs) were the slum upgrading activities, which took place in 52 slums. the project contributed to increased community awareness, as reflected in the enhanced level of respect for public areas, equipment and amenities, in the upgrading of households with residents’ own funds and in the overall post-program increase in real estate values. nevertheless, pollution problems discussed earlier in the article concerning the guarapiranga river basin continue largely unabated. the water quality of the reservoir and its rivers, creeks and other tributaries is declining by the year given that only half of the dwellings have some sort of solid waste collection system and most of the solid waste collected continues to be disposed of in the reservoir as many poor households still have no