Project Advances with New Unit in Ponta do Ubá
The Municipal School of Ponta do Ubá, located in the island community of Paranaguá (PR), had its decentralized sewage treatment system inaugurated last Wednesday (8), implemented by the Sustainable Communities project, within the scope of the partnership with the Paranaguá Container Terminal (TCP), the Municipality of Paranaguá and the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). The delivery marks the second stage of the project, which began in 2025, with the implementation of the system in the school in the Eufrasina community. In addition to these, the schools of Piaçaguera, Europinha and São Miguel should also receive the system by the end of the year.
Currently, the school in Ponta do Ubá serves 11 students up to 10 years old and, like the other beneficiary communities, does not have access to the conventional basic sanitation network. The delivery was accompanied by an environmental education program that brought together residents, school staff, and project representatives, with workshops on soap production from used oil, eco-enzymes, an exhibition of technologies, and a presentation of the installed system.
According to the TCP’s environmental superintendent, Kayo Zaiats, the initiative combines infrastructure and environmental education.
“Providing the solution is only one part of the project. We also need to ensure that the community understands how the system works and why it is important. When this happens, the impact ceases to be only environmental and becomes also social, with greater awareness of the use and preservation of water resources,” says Kayo Zaiats.
The initiative is part of the Commitment Agreement signed between TCP and the Municipality of Paranaguá in 2016, in the process of regularizing the environmental licensing of the Terminal, and has a total investment of R$ 330,000.
System Combines Technology and Nature-Based Solutions
To make the project viable in hard-to-reach areas, the Sustainable Communities team sought a technology that respected the geographical particularities of Paranaguá. In Ponta do Ubá, the installed system was designed to serve the equivalent of 32 people under typical school use conditions, capable of treating the volume of sewage generated by up to 27 toilet flushes on cloudy days and 70 on sunny days, with a safety soakaway planned for peak situations or unfavorable weather conditions.
The uniqueness of each unit is what guarantees the project’s efficiency, since the system needs to respect the terrain and environmental sensitivity of each island. Therefore, decentralized technology was chosen as the ideal solution for the local geographical reality. In Ponta do Ubá, for example, a solution based on the separation of greywater and blackwater was adopted, combining biological treatment and evapotranspiration, which allows for efficiency with low environmental impact.
“In practice, dark water passes through an anaerobic biological system, followed by an Evapotranspiration Tank (TEvap). Grey water is treated by a grease trap and a circle of banana trees — a nature-based solution that uses natural biological processes and has low energy consumption. This set of processes ensures that the cycle is completed within the school itself, transforming what would be an impact into a resource for nature,” explains Professor Fernando Armani, from UFPR, responsible for the project’s execution.
With this dynamic, the benefits go beyond sanitation: the project reduces the pollutant load, protects local water bodies, and preserves coastal ecosystems. The vegetation incorporated into the system also assists in the nutrient cycle and improves the landscape conditions of the school units.
“More than just delivering an engineering project, we are leaving behind a self-sustaining solution that respects the marine ecosystem of Paranaguá. TCP’s goal is for these schools to become models of environmental management for their communities, proving that innovation and social responsibility go hand in hand to ensure the preservation of our coastline,” concludes Zaiats.
