[from Natalia Viana in
guardian.co.uk, 2 February, 2011]
Floods in Brazil are a result of short-term planningUrban planning has never been part of Brazil's political agenda, so when heavy rains come cities are not able to cope
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| Rescue workers searching for victims after heavy rains in January 2011 caused mudslides in Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil |
Rescue workers searching for victims after heavy rains in January 2011 caused mudslides in Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Photograph: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images
As I write, more than two weeks after the floods began in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro state, many communities remain isolated due to landslides on the main access roads.
More than 800 people died and thousands of people have been displaced in the state, according to official figures. One of the worst affected towns is Santa Rita. Dozens of families still depend on helicopters to deliver food, water, and emergency healthcare. In the town of Teresópolis, people are starting to clear debris in the streets by hand, with shovels and brushes. And in Nova Friburgo, families watch, and cry, as their homes are demolished.
In the neighbouring state of São Paulo, the richest in the country, 25 people died because of the heavy rains. In Santa Catarina state, in the south, five people lost their lives and 17,000 had to flee their homes.
The January rains in Brazil are becoming more severe and floods are becoming a routine. But while specialists say it's too early to confirm the heavy rains are caused by climate change, the fact is that Brazilian cities have never been ready for them.
Urban planning has never been part of the political agenda.
Governments react, rather than plan and prevent. The ministry in charge of monitoring urban planning, the Ministry of Cities, was only created in 2003. The Supreme Court is still deciding if all cities will have to set out and follow an urban plan as defined in 1988 in new federal constitution.
But nothing has changed. Just after the floods, the government said it would set up a national system to prevent disasters – which won't be fully working for four years.
The Plano de Aceleração do Crescimento (PAC) – the national "plan of growth acceleration" – released two years ago as the major project for infrastructure works, provides about £4.4bn for disaster containment. Most will be used for drainage, but containment caps for hills will also be built.
"These are emergency works purely to reduce the repetition of tragedies," says Celso Carvalho, the national secretary of urban programmes. "Our cities are very insecure because of the failure to apply urban planning."
The reason urban planning was never taken into account is simple: the expression "long-term planning" is rarely found in Brazil's political dictionary. Short-term, eye-caching public works are the focus. Winning elections is the aim. Dominated by this logic, the main driver of cities' growth is profit, above everything else.
That's the reason why so many people live in high-risk areas, such as the slopes of mountains. Land in the city centres is too valuable for social housing; often governments don't force the private sector to use land in this way.
"The Brazilian cities comprehensive plan puts forward measures to avoid this problem, such as the creation of social interest zones and progressive taxing of unoccupied or sub-utilised buildings. The problem is that the pressure from estate agents is too high. Governments tend to yield to that," says Nabil Bonduki, a professor at the University of São Paulo and former city councillor. Building contractors and real estate companies are among some of the biggest campaign donors as well.
"The real challenge is just how deep-rooted and extensive the problem is. A [principle of] laissez faire rules in our cities, producing not only risky territories occupied by poor people, but also some risk areas occupied by the upper classes," says Luiz Cesar de Queiroz Ribeiro, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and coordinator of the Observatory of Metropolitan Cities. In Rio, many of the houses that came down in the landslides belonged to middle class families. They lived in risky areas because the views were good, the location was beautiful and the public administrators didn't have the strength to move them out. For Ribero, the institutional fragility of local administrations led to an incomplete process of citizenship building – for rich and poor.
The city of São Paulo is a good example. Every summer, thousands of people are affected by flooding, mainly in the poor neighbourhoods. About 10,000 people live in areas that are most affected – and the number is growing. Large avenues can become canals as widespread paving and impermeable soil leave little space for water drainage. The main government measure is to build "piscinões" – large reservoirs to retain water and stop it from running into rivers, so reducing the flow. And add to that the new roadway that was quickly built in the avenue that borders the Tiete River, one of the busiest roads in the city, to absorb traffic – paving the small bits of land that were left to absorb rainwater.
"Public works can't be done in 24 hours," says Geraldo Alckmin, the governor of São Paulo, now starting his second term in office.
So that's the logic behind it. Urban planners rarely think beyond the four-year term of an elected administration. Then, when a new governor takes office, his or her first measure is to discontinue all major policies in place. New administrators will sometimes rename all projects in an effort to claim credit for them.
It is a common saying that Brazilians don't have good memories. Our governments work hard to ensure it.
