Pollution of the Environment

Nature can supply all people’s needs, except their greed.

Hi! I am a girl from the town of Alto Alegre in the State of Maranhão. I am studying in the Sucupira do Norte Agricultural Family School. I am sixteen years of age.

When I was a child I loved to swim in the River Tapuio which flowed through my community. I was reared from birth until today alongside that river.
It served to sustain some families like my own, who used the water for irrigation, taking bathes and cooking.

Since I was ten, things have been happening that are changing the lives of those who depend on this river; that is has been changing my life too.

Six years ago we decided to demand the authorities to build a bridge to facilitate access from the rural area to the urban area.

During the rainy season the water from the river rose and made it difficult to go from one place to another. A canoe had to be used and we did not have one. And that added to the difficulty of things.

Worse still, we did not achieve what we wanted to achieve. When a dump was set up on a nearby hillside, problems arose, such as, bad smell, risk of diseases, and it caused the death some of the animals in the vicinity. What most affected my family was the contamination of the river.
I am telling this story to make the public authorities aware of their responsibility for improving the living conditions of my community.
We want a place that we can admire and not one for us to criticise.