Too much water, and not enough: Brazil's flooded south struggles to access basic goods

The mayor of a major city in southern Brazil on Tuesday pleaded with residents to comply with his water rationing decree, given that some four-fifths of the population is without running water, a week after major flooding that has left at least 90 people dead and more than 130 others missing.

The mayor of a major city in southern Brazil on Tuesday pleaded with residents to comply with his water rationing decree, given that some four-fifths of the population is without running water, a week after major flooding that has left at least 90 people dead and more than 130 others missing.

Efforts were continuing to rescue people stranded by the floods in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, as more rains were forecast for the region into next week. The capital, Porto Alegre, has been virtually cut off, with the airport and bus station closed and main roads blocked because of the floodwaters.

The floods in Brazil are among extreme weather events being seen around the world.

Yoga teacher Maria Vitoria Jorge's apartment building in downtown Porto Alegre is flooded, so she's leaving it behind, having withdrawn about 8,000 reais (US$1,600) from her savings to rent an apartment for herself and her parents elsewhere in the state.

"I can't shower at home, wash the dishes or even have drinkable water," the 35-year-old Jorge said in her car as she prepared to travel. She had just a gallon of water for the 200-kilometre (125-mile) drive to the city of Torres, so far unaffected by the floods.

Five of the Porto Alegre's six water treatment facilities aren't working, and Porto Alegre Mayor Sebastião Melo on Monday decreed that water be used exclusively for "essential consumption."

"We are living an unprecedented natural disaster and everyone needs to help," Melo told journalists. "I am getting water trucks to soccer fields and people will have to go there to get their water in bottles. I cannot get them to go home to home."