Brasília, September 30, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - An unprecedented environmental survey of fresh water in Brazil will begin on Wednesday (1). The aviator Gérard Moss and his wife, Margi Moss, will set out from Rio de Janeiro aboard a hydroplane, a Lake Renegade 250 model, to collect and catalogue water samples from all over the country. The project is called "Brazil of the Waters" and is intended to make the population more aware of the value of water and the importance of preserving it. Petrobras is the chief financial backer of the expedition, along with Embratel. The National Water Agency (Ana), the Rio Doce Valley Company (CVRD), BR Aviation, and the Globo Network are also contributing.
Moss became known when he made a solo trip around the world in a motorglider in 2001. This time he is taking his wife, who will document the expedition in photographs. During the course of a year they will fly approximately 100 thousand kilometers, equivalent to two trips around the world. To keep track of the quality of all the country's hydrographic basins, Moss and Margi will make the trip in 12 stages. The first one begins with the Paraná River Basin, with stops in Uberaba (MG), São José do Rio Preto and President Prudente, in the state of São Paulo, and Londrina (PR).
The hydroplane, baptized the "Cutwater," was specially converted into a laboratory for the project. Samples will be gathered in flights skimming the surface of the water, imitating the way cutwater birds catch fish. A sounding device will analyze the water's physico-chemical parameters, such as acidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, temperature, and turbidity. Other characteristics, such as potability and heavy metal contamination, will be examined later in specialized laboratories.
The locales where samples are collected will be registered in aerial photographs with geographic references provided by GPS equipment, making it possible to visualize the peculiarities of the terrain. Thus, the evaluation of water quality will follow the same methodology all over the country. The International Ecology Institute, in São Carlos (SP), will analyze the samples, and the results will be available on the System of Geographic Information (Sig), at the site of the project www.brasildasaguas.com.br. Samples will also go to other institutions, among them the Ana, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the University of São Paulo (USP), the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UFF), and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), to use the data in their own research.
ADVENTURER
Gérard Moss is a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur, with over three thousand hours flown in single-engine planes. Between 1989 and 1992, together with his wife Margi, he flew around the world in a "Sertanejo" plane manufactured by Embraer. And, in the "Wings of the Wind" project, the pilot was the first to circumnavegate the world in a motorglider, the "Ximango," also made in Brazil (Aeromot). The "Brazil of the Waters" expedition may be accompanied on the site www.extremoss.com.br. (DAS)
