Diego Saldanha used his creativity to develop a tool for cleaning water and today he dedicates himself completely to environmental projects
Diego Saldanha lives in Colombo (PR) and, a few years ago, he began to notice that the river that passed near his home was increasingly polluted. So, since 2016, he has been active in his cleanup. “It is an important river for me, which was part of my childhood. As time passed, I began to watch this river slowly die and I decided to take action and do something useful for society,” he says.
The river in question is the Atuba and, to solve the problem of waste in its waters, Saldanha has created a floating barrier that retains the waste.
“The project started in 2016 in a very simple way, with my initiative and my resources. Year after year, I had the opportunity to improve the barrier and managed to build a community on my social networks. Today, if put all the networks together, the numbers go from 1.5 million followers. I talk about the importance of preserving rivers, beaches and oceans”, he underlines.
Saldanha says he had to use his creativity to create the barrier without many resources. The first was made with 50 liter drums surrounded by protective nets. Today it has a more efficient model, with four rafts made from drums and a crane that supports a large bag to facilitate the collection of materials.
A bridge has also been built for visits to schools, universities and the community, as well as a Waste Museum: “Anything that is unusual, things that should never be in a river, I leave on display”
For 20 years Saldanha worked selling fruit on the streets of Curitiba (PR) and used his free time for his environmental projects. But since January this year she has dedicated herself completely to the environment. She has no government or institutional support, but she monetizes by producing content, closing advertising partnerships and holding conferences. “The topic of ESG is on the rise and my speech puts ESG into practice. I live what I say, day after day,” she comments.
“My dream is to have ecobarriers in all the rivers of this country, but for this to happen I would need the involvement of the government or large companies. If it were up to me, I would put an ecobarrier every 10 km of urban river route”, he concludes.
Source: Terra
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