Cambuquira, Brazil has become the first blue community in Latin America!

Photo: Excerpt of the municipal resolution committing Cambuquira to the principles of being a blue community.

Its municipal council passed the resolution on March 11 and Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow will be visiting the city on June 7 for a formal presentation of the blue community certificate.

Cambuquira is a city of 14,000 people located in the state of Minas Gerais. The non-governmental organization ‘Ong Nova Cambuquira’ worked to make Cambuquira a blue community and we are told that the Mayor of the city personally supported the effort for Cambuquira to become a blue community too.

This blue community designation is additionally significant because Cambuquira is located near the town of Sal Lourenço, where Nestle once had a bottling plant that produced ‘Pure Life’ bottled water. We are also told that Cambuquira has been fighting against Nestle’s attempts to take over the pristine water sources in their area.

Barlow will also be speaking at a public event that we are told also features the state’s public prosecutor who is responsible for an investigation into Nestle in Sal Lourenço.

And we have also been told that the communities of Urubici and Lambari in Brazil are interested in becoming blue communities too!