Guarapiranga

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Represa de Guarapiranga
Guarapiranga dam birdview. Photo by: Hamilton Breternitz Furtado
Location	São Paulo
Lake type	reservoir
Primary outflows	13.8 m³/s
Catchment area	631 km²
Basin countries	Brazil
Surface area	26.6 km²
Water volume	171 million m³

The Reservoir of Guarapiranga (Represa de Guarapiranga) is a Brazilian reservoir located in the southern area of the city of São Paulo, in the state of São Paulo.

Its foundation occurred in 1906 by the São Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company, also known as "Light", for short, which was the company responsible for region's supply of eletrical energy by that time. In 1928, began the Guarapiranga's use as a reservoir for potable water distribution^[1].

The reservoir is supplied by the River Guarapiranga and other rivers and brooks, covering areas of the cities of São Paulo, Itapecerica da Serra, and Embu-Guaçu. It was constructed originally to attend the necessities of the production of eletrical energy in the Hydroelectricity of Parnaíba. Nowadays it is utilized for the water supply for the Greater São Paulo by Sabesp. It is also utilized as a place to control floods and as a place of leisure. In the reservoir's margins, there are artificial lakes and marinas.

Between the 1980s and the 1990s of the 20th century, the absence of clear political laws of use and occupation of the soil on the part of the City hall of the City São Paulo and of the neighboring municipal districts contributed to the creation of clandestine popular irregular divisions into lots around the Guarapiranga, that grew inordinately and throw sewers not treated on nearby rivers and brooks.

Nowadays Sabesp needs to invest lots of money in the cleaning of the brooks and rivers and in the disoccupation of the irregular lots.