Brazil:where there was a huge landfill, a mangrove forest now thrives

After the closure, ten years ago, of the Gramacho landfill, one of the largest in Latin America, the area has suffered an extraordinary metamorphosis, gradually evolving into a bay dominated by nature:a mangrove forest which is home to crabs, snails, fish and birds.

The Gramacho landfill, opened in 1968 near the Guanabara Bay (Brazil), over time has transformed that earthly paradise, characterized by immaculate beaches and artisanal fishing, in a heavily polluted swamp.In just twenty years, approximately 80 million tons of waste were disposed of in the area, causing serious pollution of the bay and surrounding rivers.In 1996, the city began taking steps to reclaim the swamp, starting the leachate treatment, a toxic byproduct derived from the decomposition of waste.However, the garbage continued to accumulate until 2012, when it finally hit the landfill it was closed.

From that moment on the residents and workers of Comlurb, the largest public waste disposal organization in Latin America, began to remove the waste, build a stormwater drainage system, cover everything with a layer of clay and replant the mangroves (a plant formation that has proven surprisingly resilient in similar environmental recovery projects).

To date, the redevelopment project conducted by Comlurb in collaboration with the private partner Statled Brazil has successfully recovered approximately 60 hectares of bay, an area six times larger compared to when they began the cleanup in the late 1990s.Despite the incredible achievement, however, leachate, trash from surrounding communities, and crabbing trespassers still constitute a problem for the reclaimed landfill.Therefore the Comlurb operators created a network of clay fences (continuously maintained and strengthened) to protect the bay.

“If we hadn't said this was a landfill, people would think it was a farm.The only thing missing is livestock,” jokes Elias Gouveia, an engineer at Comlurb.“This is an environmental lesson we must learn from:nature is extraordinary.If we don't pollute it, it heals itself.” And mangroves can provide us with “significant help in environmental restoration,” he concluded.Mangroves, in fact, are very precious for the environment, because not only are they able to protect communities from floods, but they also have the ability to capture and store large quantities of carbon dioxide.Which makes them crucial for environmental restoration and the battle against global warming.

Gouveia and the residents of Gramacho represent a exemplary case of how human determination and synergy with nature can contribute to the rebirth of severely compromised ecosystems, promoting a more promising future for the environment and for future generations.

[by Iris Paganessi]