Amazon River Villages Pump Their Water, and Chill Their Vaccines, With the Sun

Projeto Saúde & Alegria has worked with Amazon river communities from Santarém, Pará, for four decades, and solar power is now central to that work. In Nova Sociedade, an Arapium village of 36 families, solar panels installed in June now run the water pumps; during the 2024 drought residents walked up to 20 km for water. The group says it has equipped 29 other communities with similar technology. On the Arapiuns River, a public health clinic uses new solar panels to refrigerate vaccines, hold telemedicine appointments and run nebulizers during wildfire smoke, and the São Benedito school in Surucuá (116 students) now has refrigeration and 24-hour power. Its 9th 'Eletricistas do Sol' workshop, in October 2026, trains Indigenous people to maintain village solar water-pumping systems.