__NOTOC__ The Billings Reservoir (locally known as Represa Billings) is the largest reservoir in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, covering a total of 127 km². It is named after

Asa White Kenney Billings Asa White Kenney Billings (February 8, 1876 – November 3, 1949) was an American hydroelectric engineer and a pioneer of the electrification of Brazil, where he spent nearly all of the last 27 years of his life. He is best remembered today for ...

, the American

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

engineer who was instrumental in building it. The

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

word ''represa'' also means "dam". The reservoir supplies about 1.8 million people, and also is used for fishing and swimming. In recent years, there have been problems with

wastewater Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industr ...

and garbage such as plastic bottles, as well as problems associated with unapproved human settlement in the surrounding regions.

History

The hydroelectric projects were built starting in 1927, and the first phase was completed between 1935 and 1937. The project was started by the

São Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company São Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company, also known as Light São Paulo or simply Light (), was a privately owned utility company operating in São Paulo, Brazil from 1899 until 1981. History Canadians William Mackenzie and Frederick Star ...

, Limited (a company headquartered in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, with British and other foreign capital), today

AES Eletropaulo Enel Distribuição São Paulo ''(Enel Distribution São Paulo)'', former Eletropaulo Metropolitana and AES Eletropaulo, is a major Brazilian power distributor in the state of São Paulo, created in the breakup of the old state-owned power distrib ...

. Water is drawn from the basin of the high

Tietê River The Tietê River (Portuguese, Rio Tietê, ) is a Brazilian river in the state of São Paulo. The name Tietê was registered for the first time on a map published in 1748 by d’Anville. The name signifies "The truthful river", or "truthful wa ...

to Henry Borden hydroelectric power plant, in

Cubatão Cubatão is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, 12 kilometers away from Santos seaport, the largest in Latin America. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista. The population is 131,626 (2020 est.) in an area of 142.88 ...

. In 1956 an underground plant was added. Increasing the power output to 880 Megawatts.

References

External links

* * https://web.archive.org/web/20090522042852/http://www.mananciais.org.br/site/mananciais_rmsp/billings/ahistbill Reservoirs in Brazil Landforms of São Paulo (state) {{SaoPauloState-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links