Abstract

Pintadas is a small county in the semiarid region in the central part of the Sertão Baiano (the interior of the State of Bahia), covering 530 km², with 10,500 inhabitants, 78% of whom live in rural areas. Water has always been scarce and of bad quality. Because of its scarcity, water is a source for political dominance, particularly in the rural zone. This concern led the CCSP (Centro Comunitário e Social de Pintadas—Pintadas Community Center) to develop an infrastructure for water storage.

The concrete plate cistern was invented about 35 years ago by Nel, a mason from Simão Dias, Sergipe. Building pools in São Paulo, he had learnt to use prefabricated cement plates. He returned to the Northeast and used his experience to create a new type of rural cistern. It is shaped like a cylinder, made of round pre-fabricated plates and called plate cistern.

Based on Nel’s invention, the CCSP started training masons in Pintadas. Equipped with this skill, the costs and time to build cisterns were cut down. Today one needs only 3 working days and R$ 430,00 (US $260) to build a cistern with a 15.000 l capacity. So far we have built 650 concrete plate cisterns. A great advantage for the population who is now drinking cistern water rather than water from water holes, thus reducing the risk of diseases. People who used to walk a long distance to fetch water have now more time for other activities.