A Brazilian couple has been criticized online for dying a waterfall blue to announce the gender of their child.
The video appears to show the Queima Pé river, which is located in a region of Brazil affected by drought.
Local officials are conducting an investigation into the incident’s ecological impact.
A video of a Brazilian couple transforming a waterfall into an unnatural electric blue on September 25 for a gender reveal party went viral, angering the internet and, according to reports, the Brazilian government.
The video, which purportedly appeared on their social media pages before being erased, depicts a Gatorade “Frost”-blue waterfall and a celebratory throng surrounded by blue and pink balloons, a gigantic balloon, and a canister producing blue smoke.
According to reports, the unidentified couple removed the initial video, but it has since been shared to other social media platforms.
The Queima Pé river is a renowned tourist site in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso and a primary water source for the surrounding town of Tangará da Serra in the state’s central-western region.
The video received tens of thousands of views across a variety of Reddit topics. Commentators voiced shock and fury. “What happened to slicing a cake?” said @devil1fish on Reddit. “Why does nature continue to be harmed because these individuals believe they’re special?”
Mato Grosso’s Secretary of State for the Environment (SEMA) issued a statement announcing an investigation into the pair to establish what products were used to dye the waterfall and if there is environmental damage. The statement, which was published by the Brazilian news website G1, indicated that six authorities — two from SEMA and four from the municipality of Tangará da Serra — were examining the incident on-site.
In recent years, gender reveal parties have been criticized not only for their archaic views of gender, but also because so many seem to go tragically wrong. In 2019, a woman was killed after her family “accidentally” detonated a pipe bomb during a gender reveal film. In 2020, a gender reveal caused a 10,000-acre fire in California.
Surprisingly, unknown Brazilians are not the only ones that colour natural bodies of water as part of a gender reveal ceremony. A short search on TikTok will reveal videos of bubblegum pink and electric blue waterfalls and streams.