06/29/2024 – 9:01
Most Brazilian capitals increased investments in their drainage and rainwater management networks between 2017 and 2022. In total, R$9.3 billion was spent in the sector in five years. However, in the same period, the number of homes vulnerable to flooding continued to grow, rising from 633 thousand in 2017 to 781 thousand in 2022.
The data analyzed by Broadcast (Grupo Estado’s real-time news system) are from the National Sanitation Information System (SNIS), administered by the Ministry of Cities, based on annual information provided by city halls. The most recent report was released in January of this year, based on municipal declarations made in 2023 about the work carried out in 2022.
The relevance of investments in urban drainage came under the spotlight after the climate tragedy that hit Rio Grande do Sul in May, with floods that affected 471 of its 479 municipalities. The capital Porto Alegre, which had 14 thousand homeless people, declared a total expenditure of R$281 million to the SNIS between 2017 and 2022.
In addition to Porto Alegre, 17 other capitals, as well as Brasília, reported that they increased spending on the sector during the period. The details show the fluctuations in investments from one year to the next. In Curitiba, for example, R$15.3 million was spent in 2017, R$7.6 million in 2018, R$39.7 million in 2019, R$142 million in 2020, R$20 million in 2021 and R$35.9 million in 2022. Check out the expenses declared by the ten largest capitals.
Vulnerable properties
Despite the declared billion-dollar figures, most city halls have not achieved a relationship between increased investment and a reduction in residences classified as more vulnerable to flooding. Between 2017 and 2022, 11 capitals reported an increase in addresses in this situation, 12 indicated a reduction and four maintained the same numbers.
The president of the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), Paulo Ziulkoski, says that the increased investment has been seen not only in capital cities, but in cities in general. For him, municipalities are under pressure from urban expansion and the effects of climate change, which would help explain why, even with more investment, there has been an increase in the lists of the most vulnerable.
“Municipalities are increasingly susceptible to floods and flooding, as each disaster reduces the depth of river beds and extreme events in which rainfall becomes more intense mean that drainage systems cannot cope, making unity urgent of efforts by the Union and States to support municipalities in preventing new disasters”, says Ziulkoski.
The list of most vulnerable residences is made based on mapping of risk areas, which is the responsibility of each municipality. In the most current survey, 13 capitals declared that they had complete mapping of their risk areas. The rest are divided between partial levels of mapping, with little progress over the last five years. In 2018, there were 12 capitals with complete mapping.
Among those that indicate having reduced the number of houses most vulnerable to flooding, Porto Velho (RO) estimated that there were 30,000 in this situation in 2017. In 2022, in the most recent survey, it said it had only 500. However, the data may be inaccurate, since the city hall informs the SNIS that it has incomplete mapping of the risk areas, with less than 50% of the territory assessed.
The most significant increase in this classification occurred in Rio de Janeiro (RJ). In 2017, the capital of Rio de Janeiro estimated that 326,000 homes were at greater risk. In 2022, the number jumped to 438,000, an increase of 34%. Among the highlights, Campo Grande (MS) went from 90,000 to 125,000. Manaus (AM) went from 5,600 to 39,000. In São Paulo, the estimate of 41,600 remained. Porto Alegre estimated that 5,000 homes were at greater risk of flooding in 2017 and 11,700 in 2022.
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