The giant reservoir that São Paulo needs to avoid collapse is surrounded by sewage, microplastics, and illegal settlements, while nearly 22 million people live in the region that depends on urgent water solutions.

Written by Noel Budeguer

Published on 09/06/2026 at 19:26

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Billings stores enough water to be strategic against the water crisis, but the largest urban reservoir in the country has become a symbol of a São Paulo surrounded by sewage, irregular occupation, and environmental neglect

The Billings Reservoir has become a kind of brutal portrait of São Paulo. On one side, one of the largest water resources in the country, essential for water, energy, flood control, and climate security of Brazil’s largest metropolis. On the other, sewage, irregular occupation, microplastics, and a clandestine real estate pressure advancing over protected areas.

According to The Guardian, Billings has 127 km² and is considered the largest urban reservoir in Brazil by area and volume. The figure is even more alarming when it appears alongside another number: as reported by Secom, based on IBGE, the São Paulo Metropolitan Region has 21.6 million inhabitants. In other words, it’s not just a reservoir. It’s a strategic piece for a region that concentrates a population larger than that of many countries.

The reservoir that was born to generate energy became a vital piece against the water crisis

In the Billings Reservoir, the water that should reinforce São Paulo's water security coexists with visible signs of pollution, accumulated trash, degraded vegetation, and areas pressured by irregular urban occupation. — In the Billings Reservoir, the water that should reinforce São Paulo’s water security coexists with visible signs of pollution, accumulated trash, degraded vegetation, and areas pressured by irregular urban occupation.

According to the São Bernardo do Campo City Hall, Billings is not a natural lake. It was built to function as a hydroelectric power generation reservoir, linked to the utilization of the Serra do Mar’s elevation and the history of the Henry Borden Plant.

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Sewage, microplastics, and strong odor expose the environmental wound of Billings

The beautiful image of water surrounded by greenery hides a harsh reality. According to The Guardian, large areas of Billings are contaminated by domestic and industrial waste, pharmaceutical waste, microplastics, and fecal matter.

The situation is not just visual. It is sanitary, urban, and political. The reservoir is under pressure from neighborhoods without adequate infrastructure, contaminated streams, irregular disposal, and settlements encroaching on areas meant to protect the water source.

According to Semil, the São Paulo Government articulated in February 2026 an integrated plan to contain the bad odor in the Billings Reservoir, with actions for sanitation, inspection, and monitoring of water quality until 2028. The department itself classified the problem as structural, associated with irregular sewage discharge, disordered land occupation, and environmental degradation around the reservoir.

The most alarming data came from the same Semil: in some sub-basins, the pollutant load is up to four times higher than the environmentally acceptable limit. In other words, the reservoir that São Paulo wants to use as a shield against the water crisis also bears signs of urban collapse.

Viewed from above, the Billings Reservoir impresses with its size, but Brazil's largest urban reservoir also exposes an alarming contrast: the strategic water for São Paulo advances alongside occupied areas, urban pressure, and signs of environmental degradation. — Viewed from above, the Billings Reservoir impresses with its size, but Brazil’s largest urban reservoir also exposes an alarming contrast: the strategic water for São Paulo advances alongside occupied areas, urban pressure, and signs of environmental degradation.

Clandestine subdivisions and organized crime advance over protected areas

Billings is protected by law. According to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly, the State Law No. 13,579, of July 13, 2009, defined the Protection and Recovery Area of the Water Sources of the Billings Reservoir Basin as a water source of regional interest for the supply of current and future populations.

But the law alone did not stop the advance of the illegal city. According to the São Paulo City Hall, criminals operate in protected areas, mainly in the Guarapiranga and Billings reservoirs, with deforestation, illegal subdivision, and sale of houses in water source areas.

The city hall states that these groups invade or buy cheap land, clear vegetation, and build gated communities to profit from the sale of properties. It is a simple and devastating mechanism: the forest falls, the soil is exposed, the occupation grows, and water pays the price.

According to The Guardian, sources interviewed for the report also mentioned the involvement of networks linked to local interests, land grabbers, political agents, and organized crime groups around illegal constructions. Therefore, the Billings case has ceased to be just an environmental issue. It has also become an issue of public safety, housing, sanitation, and urban governance.

Fines, oversight, and a question São Paulo cannot avoid

The problem has also reached the center of the sanitation debate. According to CNN Brasil, Cetesb imposed two fines on Sabesp, totaling R$ 1 million, following incidents of illegal sewage discharge into the Tietê River, Pinheiros River, and Billings Reservoir. The report stated that the fines were imposed starting in December 2025.

Sabesp, according to CNN Brasil, stated that the region has historical challenges, high population density, and a need for sewage network expansion. The explanation shows the extent of the impasse: there is no simple solution for a reservoir surrounded by urban inequality, old occupation, sanitation failures, and real estate pressure.

Billings is not a distant landscape. It is a warning within the metropolis itself. If recovered, it could be one of São Paulo’s greatest allies against water scarcity. If it continues to be treated as the city’s backyard, it could become the symbol of an impending crisis.

In the end, the question that remains is harsh: how does Brazil allow a reservoir with a strategic role for millions of people to be surrounded by sewage, microplastics, illegal settlements, and organized crime?

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The giant reservoir that São Paulo needs to avoid collapse is surrounded by sewage, microplastics, and illegal settlements, while nearly 22 million people live in the region that depends on urgent water solutions.

Billings stores enough water to be strategic against the water crisis, but the largest urban reservoir in the country has become a symbol of a São Paulo surrounded by sewage, irregular occupation, and environmental neglect

The reservoir that was born to generate energy became a vital piece against the water crisis

Sewage, microplastics, and strong odor expose the environmental wound of Billings

Clandestine subdivisions and organized crime advance over protected areas

Fines, oversight, and a question São Paulo cannot avoid

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The giant reservoir that São Paulo needs to avoid collapse is surrounded by sewage, microplastics, and illegal settlements, while nearly 22 million people live in the region that depends on urgent water solutions.

Billings stores enough water to be strategic against the water crisis, but the largest urban reservoir in the country has become a symbol of a São Paulo surrounded by sewage, irregular occupation, and environmental neglect

The reservoir that was born to generate energy became a vital piece against the water crisis

Sewage, microplastics, and strong odor expose the environmental wound of Billings

Clandestine subdivisions and organized crime advance over protected areas

Fines, oversight, and a question São Paulo cannot avoid

Dissatisfied with seeing people sleeping on the street, a man named Ryan Donais started building small mobile homes so that homeless people can escape the cold, each equipped with a bed, running water, electricity, and heating.

Workers were opening a modern road in Dover when they found, 6 meters below the asphalt, a 3,500-year-old boat made of stitched oak and plant fibers.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

Consumers eat six times more chicken than in the 1960s, global meat supply quadruples in 60 years, and FAO report reveals the invisible cost on the plate: livestock could drive 80% of the increase in agricultural emissions over the next decade.

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São Paulo reaches a new level and will draw seawater to supply a tourist city: an unprecedented R$ 56.4 million plant will use reverse osmosis, deliver 20 liters per second, and expand the water supply.

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