The das Velhas River ( pt, Rio das Velhas), is by length the major
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of the basin of the
São Francisco river
The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...
. Its water flows into that river at a place called Barra do Guaicuí, in the municipality of
Várzea da Palma
Várzea da Palma is a municipality ''(município)'' in north-central Minas Gerais in Brazil. Its population in 2020 was 39,803 in a total area of 2,220 km².
Várzea da Palma is located east of the São Francisco River and is on the Rio das ...
,
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
. The source was found to be the Andorinhas waterfall located in the municipality of
Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto (, ''Black Gold''), formerly Vila Rica (, ''Rich Village''), is a city in and former capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a former colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains and designated a World Herita ...
.
Origin of the name
According to writer Aníbal Machado, this river is known to the amerindians as ''Uaimií'' and by the
bandeirantes
The ''Bandeirantes'' (), literally "flag-carriers", were slavers, explorers, adventurers, and fortune hunters in early Colonial Brazil. They are largely responsible for Brazil's great expansion westward, far beyond the Tordesillas Line of 1494 ...
as ''Guaicuí'', from which the name Barra do Guaicuí for the place where the Das Velhas empties into the São Francisco River. In Tupi "gwaimi" means "old" whereas in Uaimii the final "i" means "river". "Rio das Velhas" means "River of the old women".
Historic importance
The das Velhas river has been of great importance in the development of the central region of Minas Gerais, because it is one of the main roads by which the
gold cycle evolved. From its source, the das Velhas River passes through other historical cities in the region, among which
Sabará,
Santa Luzia,
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...
etc.
Recent academic research indicates that the das Velhas river could have been the original path to the discovery of gold in Minas Gerais. By this theory, the explorers from the
northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
walked along the banks of the São Francisco river and went on along the Das Velhas River. It is a more natural passage but much longer than the road from
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
or
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 ...
. Passing through the central region of Minas Gerais, the explorers discovered gold and precious stones. Once found, knowing the approximate places, they swiftly went through the rough terrain of the mountains by a much shorter but much more difficult and dangerous route. The dispute over the existing mines led to the
War of the Emboabas
The War of the Emboabas ( pt, Guerra dos Emboabas, lit=newcomers' war) was a conflict in colonial Brazil waged in 1706-1707 and 1708-1709 over newly discovered gold fields, which had set off a rush to the region between two generations of Port ...
, at the end of which the Minas Gerais region became a captaincy administered directly by the Portuguese crown.
Present situation
In the
metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a typ ...
, the Das Velhas river suffered a series of setbacks. A sizable part of the water volume is captured by the Water Treatment Station Agua de Bela Fama. Behind the station the river receives a great quantity of sewage from the
Arrudas and Onça streams, both crossing the city of Belo Horizonte. The result is that the das Velhas River in its best known stretch is a river with yellow water (mostly caused by the iron present in the region's soil), extremely polluted and acid. There is practically no life in the water of the river along that stretch.
Because of the historic and environmental importance the Manuelzão project was initiated in 1997 by the Medical Faculty of the University of Minas Gerais, with the goal of finding a way to bring back life in the basin of the Das Velhas. The project initialised a series of goals to sensibilise the public opinion, which will result through the embellishment of public, municipal and state policies. In particular rigorous controls of pollution emitters are important. The project has the ambitious goal of having the Das Velhas river revitalised by the year 2010.
The
Serra do Gandarela National Park was created in 2014 in an effort to protect the water supplying the river, and thus the Belo Horizonte water supply.
References
*Portuguese Wikipedia:
Rio das Velhas
The das Velhas River ( pt, Rio das Velhas), is by length the major tributary of the basin of the São Francisco river. Its water flows into that river at a place called Barra do Guaicuí, in the municipality of Várzea da Palma, Minas Gerais. The ...
, translation
*
''Detailed Basin map (in Portuguese)''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Velhas
Rivers of Minas Gerais