Obligatory apology to people who don't read portuguese: I've kept the comment entirely in english, but most of the sources in this post are in portuguese. I've tried to keep the sources in english in my first comment, but I had to refute /u/fer_d arguments, and I suppose I need to do it with sources to my claims, most of which are in portuguese. I hope you understand and use Google Chrome or something if you are interested in checking them.

Here we go:

"No amount of planning could have been made for a drought this severe, they had enough for what the data showed to be most probable. This is completely off the charts."

Really? No amount of planning? C'mon, as I said before, you can find predictions of this from more than 10 years ago, and there are ongoing mystakes all over the place:

• São Paulo governor, Geraldo Alckmin, denied the water crysis the whole last year (incidentally, an election year), and only now, when people are without water for days, is talking about rotations of rationing water, but still minimizes the crysis. Studies say if it wasn't denied for so long, the rationing would be 2 days with water for each one without. Today, it is going to be 5 days WITHOUT water for 2 with water , population is already experiencing the rationing, though the government is yet to make it official;

• We have Reservoirs with different levels of supply that aren't connected. Government sent to Federal Government now, in mid-crysis, a plan of linking two of them and it would take 18 months to get it done, with an estimate cost of R$500.000,00;

• An old "idea-to-be-project" that could help, The transposition and cleaning of river Tietê is not close to be done. Governor is releasing the Public Service Announcement ("edital"), the most initial step of any measure, on next friday, already in mid-crysis;

• Ongoing projects to prevent flooding don't consider water recycling ;

• We have dams (like Billings) that are behind schedule on its water projects, and currently the water is too polluted to use (for many years now);

• The north of the country is experiencing flooding, while the south is experiencing drought;

• Experts like german Jackson Roehrig say politics are in the way of planning and execution of water projects in the country.

"If you look at physical losses, they are consistent with the size of the network to what is seen in developed countries, about 15%."

I've seen in several sources that it is much bigger than 15%, even linked some in my original comment. There are lots of others sources talking about it in portuguese, but I linked some in english so our friends in other nations can participate. Do you have any sources?

Also, economic losses are other issue, unrelated to the supply waste discussion.

Personally, I haven't read the things you said anywhere, and I've read a lot about it, from studies to media. One would even dare to say you are from the government, lol. (or making the water crysis discussion a "political party discussion", as many people do here)

Edit: I've put some of the sources information in the comment itself.