The drought in Brazil’s largest city Sao Paulo is quickly reaching crisis proportions.  In public, officials are talking about drastic water rationing in a city where many residents are already dealing with sporadic service.  In private, the situation is much more grim.

In a closed-doors meeting that was secretly recorded and leaked to the news media, Sao Paulo water official Paulo Massato said that residents would have to flee the city because “there’s not enough water, there won’t be water to bathe, to clean” homes.  It’s projected that the city’s main reservoir system will run dry sometime this year.

It seems impossible for something like this to happen to a modern city, but it is.  And environmentalists know who to blame.  “Because of environmental degradation and political cowardice, millions of people in Sao Paulo are now wondering when the water will run out,” said Marussia Whately of the environmental group Instituto Socioambiental, whose website now has a continuously updated map to show where the water is running out in the Sao Paulo region.

Massive deforestation in the rainforest has ruined the watersheds and cut the amount of humidity re-released into the air, diminishing rainfall.  Urban, industrial, and agricultural outputs have fouled the supplies in the Tiete and Pinheiros rivers, now more famous for their overwhelming stench than life-giving water.  Rapid population expansion has increased demand for what little fresh water is left.

Dwindling water supplies are also worrying officials in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais state.  Smaller cities actually cancelled Carnival, because there wouldn’t be enough water to wash down the streets after the party ended.