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BRAZIL-DISASTER-POLITICS
Party’s over: Rio reels from deadly disasters
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Long a party hot spot, Rio de
Janeiro has not had much to celebrate after a series of deadly disasters
rocked the Brazilian city, exposing the dire state of its infrastructure and
official negligence.
Flooding, landslides and the collapse of illegal apartment buildings
following torrential rain last week left more than 25 people dead and the
“Marvelous City” in shock.
The havoc caused by the unusually heavy downpour was amplified by rampant
construction in neighborhoods controlled by heavily-armed gangs and militias,
where emergency workers are wary of entering because of the threat of
violence.
“It’s not the rain that kills, it’s the incompetence of the leaders of the
city and our country,” wrote Brazilian columnist Miriam Leitao in the
powerful daily O Globo after the predicted torrential rain on April 8-9 left
10 people dead. Independent risk analyst Moacyr Duarte said Rio officials had
made the postcard-pretty city, which has a “complex” topography of verdant
hills and granite peaks, even more vulnerable to natural disasters through
their lack of preparation.
“We had very intense rain which would have caused damage anywhere, but the
impact here would have been much less if everything had worked properly,”
Duarte told AFP.
– Mayor under fire –
Much of the blame has been heaped on Marcelo Crivella, a former
Evangelical pastor who is halfway through his term as Rio’s mayor.
Already unpopular for his frosty attitude toward the city’s Carnival,
Crivella faces impeachment over allegations he illegally extended advertising
contracts.
Now he is being skewered for failing to invest enough money in the city’s
creaky infrastructure.
In response to claims Rio has not spent anything on drainage works since
the start of the year, a city government official told AFP that 103 million
reais ($26 million) had been allocated for prevention works against flooding
so far this year.
But she admitted that the figure for the entire year was down more than 33
percent from 2016, the year before Crivella took office.
– ‘Absence of the state’ –
Beyond the numbers, the roots of Rio’s problems go much deeper.
For decades, authorities have been unable to tame the city’s wild
expansion as illegal construction proliferated in high-risk areas.
Analysts say the problem has been aggravated by the lack of efficient
public transport, which leaves many commuters stuck in traffic for hours.
“Many people often prefer to live in precarious conditions near their
place of work when they could live better further away,” said Mauricio
Ehrlich, a civil engineering professor at the Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro.
“If we want to avoid deaths, we need to remove populations from risky
areas and relocate them elsewhere, but often the public authorities do not
act in this direction for fear of losing votes in the next election,” he
said.
Ehrlich also denounced the “absence” of the state in areas where residents
live under the yoke of drug traffickers and shadowy militias.
Such militias control Muzema favela, where the two buildings collapsed on
Friday, killing at least 16 people. Another eight were still missing on
Tuesday.
They sell land rights and control access to city services such as water
and electricity.
Government officials have tried and failed to stop illegal construction in
the city, where some estimate that 50 percent of homes have been built
without proper permits.
The state, according to Ehrlich, “is only looking from afar with
binoculars.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/1207 hrs