People are walking kilometers with buckets on their heads for water
Uma jovem alagoana de engenharia ambiental, credenciada pela ONU após contribuir a uma declaração sobre água e clima, precisa de R$ 12 mil para chegar à COP28 em Dubai — conferência onde nações negociam o futuro do planeta. Verena Meirelles não chegou até ali por nomeação governamental, mas pelo peso de seu trabalho junto ao movimento Águas Resilientes e pela realidade que ele documenta: comunidades nordestinas que caminham quilômetros carregando água no dia a dia. Ela pede ao seu país que a ajude a levar essa voz até a mesa onde as decisões são tomadas.
- Uma estudante sem recursos governamentais foi credenciada pela ONU para representar o Nordeste na maior conferência climática do mundo — e agora depende de doações para embarcar.
- O prazo é urgente: a COP28 começa em 30 de novembro, e os R$ 12 mil necessários para passagem e hospedagem ainda precisam ser arrecadados via vaquinha online.
- Por trás do número está uma crise concreta — famílias em Alagoas percorrem quilômetros diários em busca de água potável, e essa realidade corre o risco de não ter voz em Dubai.
- A campanha de financiamento coletivo circula nas redes com link e chave Pix, transformando cada doação em um fragmento de representação política para o Nordeste vulnerável.
Verena Meirelles tem um número na cabeça: doze mil reais. É exatamente o que separa seu quarto em Alagoas de uma cadeira na COP28, a vigésima oitava edição da conferência climática da ONU, que acontece entre 30 de novembro e 12 de dezembro em Dubai. Estudante de engenharia ambiental e sanitária na UFAL, ela foi credenciada pela ONU não por indicação do governo, mas pelo seu trabalho junto ao movimento Águas Resilientes — uma iniciativa estudantil que produziu a Declaração sobre Água e Clima, documento reconhecido pela ONU por nomear o impacto desigual das mudanças climáticas sobre as comunidades mais pobres.
A relação de Verena com a água começou na infância, numa atração por rios e mares que foi se transformando em senso de responsabilidade. Quando chegou à universidade e descobriu a gestão de recursos hídricos, encontrou seu lugar. Ao integrar o Águas Resilientes e ajudar a redigir a declaração, tornou-se porta-voz de uma crise que não é abstrata: no Nordeste, pessoas caminham quilômetros todos os dias carregando baldes para buscar água potável. Esse é o presente, não o futuro.
Para chegar a Dubai e levar essa realidade às negociações globais, Verena criou uma vaquinha online — com link e chave Pix — e pede ao Brasil que a ajude a ocupar esse espaço. Cada doação é um pedaço da voz do Nordeste numa sala onde governos decidem o que vem a seguir.
Verena Meirelles needs twelve thousand reais. That specific number—not ten, not fifteen—is what stands between her and Dubai, between her bedroom in Alagoas and a seat at the United Nations climate conference happening in late November. She is twenty-something, a student of environmental engineering at the Federal University of Alagoas, and she has been credentialed by the UN to represent her state and the entire Northeast at COP-28, the world's largest annual gathering on climate change. The money will cover her flight, her stay, her presence at a table where nations negotiate the future of the planet. She is raising it online, one donation at a time, through a crowdfunding campaign.
The COP conferences happen every year. Diplomats arrive, government ministers, civil society representatives—thousands of people from every country, all gathered to discuss how to slow the damage from a warming world. This year's edition, the twenty-eighth, runs from November 30 through December 12 in the United Arab Emirates. Verena earned her credential not through a government appointment but through her work on a document called the Declaration on Water and Climate, produced by a youth-led environmental movement called Águas Resilientes, or Resilient Waters. The declaration focuses on how climate change damages water resources, and how those damages fall hardest on the poorest communities. The UN recognized the document. The UN gave her a seat.
Her commitment to water began in childhood. She grew up drawn to rivers, to the sea, to any body of water. That early fascination became something deeper—a sense of responsibility to the people who depend on those waters, and to the generations coming after. When she chose her university major, she chose environmental and sanitary engineering. When she discovered the field of water resource management, she said later, she found herself. The university gave her access to serious work. She joined Águas Resilientes, a project started by students at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. She helped write the declaration that would eventually get her to Dubai.
The declaration is not abstract. It names a reality: people in vulnerable communities are suffering right now from environmental collapse, from drought, from the simple absence of water. In the Northeast, in parts of Alagoas, people walk kilometers every day carrying buckets on their heads to find drinking water. This is not a future problem. This is today. Verena's work on the declaration was an attempt to make sure that reality—that human cost—would be heard in the rooms where climate policy gets made.
But getting to Dubai costs money. Verena does not have it. So she created a crowdfunding campaign and shared it online, asking people to contribute what they could. The campaign has a link. It has a Pix code for Brazilian donors who want to transfer money instantly. It has a number: twelve thousand reais. She is asking her country to help her carry that voice to the conference, to sit at the table, to speak for the people walking kilometers with buckets, to represent the Northeast when the world's governments decide what comes next.
Notable Quotes
I liked everything to do with bodies of water—rivers, seawater, everything. That's where my choice of major came from. I knew I wanted to do engineering, but I found my certainty when I discovered water resource management. I found myself.— Verena Meirelles, speaking to TNH1
This is a movement rooted in social concerns. People are really suffering from environmental impacts, especially from drought. Even today, people walk kilometers with buckets on their heads.— Verena Meirelles, on the Águas Resilientes movement
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a student from Alagoas matter at a UN climate conference? Isn't that what diplomats are for?
Because diplomats don't live the problem. Verena does. The people she's representing walk kilometers for water. That's not a talking point—that's their morning.
But she's just one person. How does her presence change anything at COP-28?
She changes what gets heard. When a young woman from the Northeast stands up and talks about water scarcity, it's not a statistic anymore. It's a voice. And the UN credentialed her specifically because her declaration connected climate change to the people actually suffering from it.
So the crowdfunding—that's not just about money. It's about visibility.
Exactly. Every person who donates is saying: this matters. The Northeast matters. Water justice matters. And Verena gets to carry that into the room.
What happens if she doesn't raise the money?
Then the Northeast doesn't have that voice at the table. And the people walking with buckets on their heads stay invisible to the people making decisions about their future.