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Loading ...Brazil’s PAC for Sanitation
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009When Brazil’s multifaceted Program for Accelerated Growth (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento – PAC) was announced in 2007, it included a segment earmarked for improving infrastructure in provision of drinking water and sanitation services. Today the head of the Civil House, Dilma Rousseff, and the Minister of Cities, Márcio Fortes, announced a list of 109 […]
São Paulo to Put Solar Water Heaters in State’s Social Housing
Thursday, May 7th, 2009The Housing and Urban Development Company (Companhia de Desenvolvimento Habitacional e Urbano – CDHU), São Paulo state’s public entity that build public housing, just signed a contract with six manufacturers of solar water heater kits to have such units installed in 15,000 houses that the CDHU is building or will build for low-income families in […]
A Symbolic Ban of Asbestos
Thursday, January 29th, 2009Brazil’s Environment Minister, Carlos Minc, just banned asbestos. Well, not quite. He announced at the World Social Forum that has banned, through an administrative rule (portaria), the use of any product containing asbesto fibers in construction or goods acquired by the Environment Ministry (MMA) and its associated organs: the national environment agency, IBAMA, the Chico […]
“Eco-Pillows”
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009When I first read in O Globo of the latest offering from Campinas-based Les Coussins to be shown in mid-February at the annual trade fair of Brazilian Association of High Decoration Furnishing Industries (ABIMAD), I contacted their owner/designer, Fátima Queiroz, to ask for pictures and permission to blog about it. Fátima was not only nice […]
A Dengue Vaccine by December?
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008During the 60th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência– SBPC) last month held in Campinas, São Paulo, it was announced that Brazil probably will go to market first with a vaccine against dengue and that they may start producing it as early as […]
Dia Sem Carro
Friday, September 21st, 2007Tomorrow, Saturday 22 September, is World Carfree Day. The annual event begun in France in 1998 and now worldwide, is intended as a day when everyone leaves their car at home and utilizes public transport, walks or rides a bicycle. The resulting quiet, lack of traffic congestion and cleaner air is intended to make people […]