Seven municipalities are in an emergency situation in Rio de Janeiro

Seven municipalities are in an emergency situation in the state of Rio de Janeiro due to the heavy rains that hit regions of the state this weekend, leaving 12 dead and around 600 people homeless or homeless. Another five municipalities should have the request recognized. According to the Minister of Integration and Regional Development MIDR, Waldez Góes, other municipalities should still be included on the list. In total, 37 cities were impacted.

On Monday (15), MIDR had already recognized the emergency situation in Rio de Janeiro, Belford Roxo, Nova Iguaçu and São João do Meriti. This Tuesday (16), through the National Civil Defense, the ministry recognized the emergency situation in the cities of Duque de Caxias, Nilópolis and Mesquita.

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According to MIDR, five other cities in Rio de Janeiro – São Gonçalo, Magé, Japeri, Paracambi and Queimados – must have their requests recognized as soon as they send the municipal decrees recognizing an emergency situation.

To municipalities in a state of emergency, the federal government offers humanitarian aid, in addition to help in cleaning, restoring and rebuilding what was destroyed. According to the minister, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's recommendation is “full support”, he highlights. “So it’s whatever is necessary to help people humanitarianly, to help restore cities and to help rebuild what was destroyed,” he says.

Góes is part of the federal government delegation that visited, this Tuesday (16), areas hit by heavy rains over the weekend in Belford Roxo, in Baixada Fluminense. The team was made up of the ministers of Integration and Regional Development, Waldez Góes, of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, of the substitute Environment and Climate Change, João Paulo Capobianco, and of substitute Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger, Osmar Almeida Júnior.

They reinforced support for city halls. Góes explained that after the emergency decree it is necessary for city halls to draw up plans to specify what they need. According to him, it does not need to be a single plan, as needs arise, other plans can be drawn up. Technical teams from the federal government are available to advise city halls. “From today onwards, if necessary, however many days it is necessary, for them to stay here, they will stay. It helps that the plan, when it enters the system, is already in full, there is no need for due diligence, we already summarily approve it, we have already made resources available to the municipality,” he says.

In addition to emergency support, the ministers highlighted that there are actions being considered in the long term to resolve a question that repeats itself year after year.

“Municipalities need to plan for the intensification of climate change, including in [diversos] scenarios [possíveis]. Because today the situation is one. It is necessary to apply projections of temperature variation and the increase in extreme weather events to see where the problem will be tomorrow. Today is here. As these changes progress, other areas will be affected. So, this is a front that the federal government is supporting through sectoral adaptation plans,” said Capobianco.

According to him, the federal government will support municipalities in developing their adaptation plans, which should foresee the actions to be implemented in the medium and long term so that municipalities can remove areas from the risk zone, as they are today.

In the press conferences held this Tuesday, government officials also highlighted the help that is being offered by the state government, with resources through the Recomeçar Card, and by city halls, with social assistance and delivery of basic items.