{"id":20978,"date":"2017-04-16T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=20978"},"modified":"2017-04-17T14:56:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T18:56:26","slug":"challenges-of-transitioning-to-sustainable-urban-infrastructure-in-the-amazon-delta-and-estuary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2017\/04\/16\/challenges-of-transitioning-to-sustainable-urban-infrastructure-in-the-amazon-delta-and-estuary\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenges of Transitioning to Sustainable Urban Infrastructure in the Amazon Delta and Estuary"},"content":{"rendered":"

As paradoxical as it may seem, the Amazon region is considered not only an \u201curban forest\u201d, but also a region with one of the most rapid rates of urban population growth in Brazil. Within the region, the Amazon Delta and Estuary (or ADE), where the urban population has increased about 300 percent in the last 40 years<\/a>, are emblematic of this trend.<\/p>\n

The lack of adaptive capacity and increasing flood risks in the city of Bel\u00e9m encapsulate the challenges faced by a growing number of cities in the Global South.<\/blockquote><\/figure>\n

Today, 79 percent of the ADE\u2019s population lives in urban areas distributed in 50 municipalities, including a mosaic of small coastal cities, a few medium urban areas, and two metropolitan regions of the state capitals of Macap\u00e1 (with over 500,000 inhabitants), and Bel\u00e9m (with around 2.5 million inhabitants) (see Figure 1). This process of fast urbanization has come with deficiencies in the provisioning of public infrastructure and services, such as delivering water and sewage collection, and lack of housing policies that could have prevented the precarious occupation of flood prone areas. In a region historically known for the \u201cdictatorship of the water\u201d, urban areas have increasingly become hotspots of flood risk.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1.<\/strong> Share of urban population in municipalities of the Amazon Delta and Estuary. Data source: Deltas-DAT; IBGE 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seasonal flooding has always dominated social and environmental dynamics across Amazonian landscapes. While periodic variations in flooding cycles have historically marked Amazonian cities, these dynamics are fast changing in frequency, scale, and impact. In the estuary-delta region, where seasonal cycles are compounded by significant variation in daily tides, urban flooding is increasingly commonplace. Amazonian cities large and small have expanded primarily along two main axes. First, in small and medium cities, urban areas have primarily expanded outwards through forms of habitation considered to be \u201csubnormal.\u201d Many of these areas are known in the region as \u201cbaixadas\u201d, a synonym for settlements in low-lying areas or, as in census terms, subnormal agglomerations. These \u201csubnormal agglomerations\u201d are dynamic neighborhoods characterized by \u201cinformal\u201d houses and streets, lacking even the most basic infrastructure and services, and often comprising high population density. Exposure and vulnerability to flooding have become the norm rather than the exception. Second, in medium and large cities, urban areas have expanded both outwards through informal settlements, and upwards through high-rises, largely representing marked socioeconomic divides.<\/p>\n

An assessment of urban vulnerability<\/a> in the region of the ADE, carried out as part of the BF-Deltas project<\/a>, showed that over 1 million people live with a high or very high degree of vulnerability due to high flood exposure; lack of sanitation and services; health risks; poverty; and exposure to environmental hazards and pollution. It is expected that changes associated with climate will increase the frequency and magnitude of flooding in the region, impacting people\u00b4s displacement, affecting water quality, and threatening the health and well-being of a majority of the population.<\/p>\n

In the Global South, transitioning to sustainable urban infrastructure is perhaps the most fundamental component to achieving the dual challenges of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and promoting long-term mitigation and adaptation strategies to climate change. According to the World Bank Group, clean water and sanitation deficits are shrinking slowly in developing countries, including Brazil, but the reality on the ground seems to point to a different picture. Across the 50 urban areas of the Amazon Delta and Estuary from 2000 to 2013, for example, the sanitation deficit has increased, particularly in small cities. While provisioning of sanitation infrastructure remained constant, population growth has averaged around 45 percent during this period (see Figure 2). Likewise, for the two metropolitan areas in the estuary-delta region (B\u00e9lem and Macapa), the connection to clean water has improved, yet provisioning of water and other services continue to be highly deficient and unequal. As cities grow upwards in height and outwards through informal settlements, the impact of flooding\u2014and, thus, sewage spills\u2014are increasingly affecting, although in different ways, all sectors of society.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2.<\/strong> Urban population growth 2000 to 2010; water and sanitation service for years 2000 and 2013 within different areas of the Amazon delta and Estuary. Data source: IBGE census data 2000- 2010; Datasus 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recent study from the National Confederation of Industries in Brazil showed that government plans to eradicate deficits in clean water access and to increase sewage connection and treatment (from 57 percent to 93 percent) by 2023 will need to be extended for an additional 20 years. In fact, from 2007 to 2015, only a fraction (36 percent) of investments of the Program of Accelerated Growth (or PAC) slotted to aid sanitation infrastructure have been finished. Sanitation infrastructure, as with other kinds of infrastructure, has been largely ignored in Brazil over the last 20 years, despite ever more pressing needs of and risks posed to large segments of Brazilian society. Without strategic planning and dedicated political priority, Amazonian cities will continue to grow chaotically, becoming<\/em> increasingly susceptible to flooding as well as to epidemics, and increasingly affecting<\/em> surrounding ecosystems and populations with high loads of pollution and garbage. As sanitation and urban services and infrastructure in general are foundational to individual well-being and social welfare, in this scenario, it is difficult to imagine that we are making progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>. The people of the region, however, are not passive, and while often feeling powerless amid political corruption scandals, high levels of violence, and disregard for policymakers, they are reacting to improve their houses and, to the extent possible, their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Flood risk and infrastructure deficiencies in the largest urban jungle of the Amazon Delta and Estuary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Home to 2.5 million people, the capital city of Bel\u00e9m is an excellent example of a metropolitan region that has accelerated population growth and colossal adaptation deficits. It is not a surprise that when most people land for the first time in B\u00e9lem, their reaction is shock. As the airplane glides from vast expanses of forests into peri-urban B\u00e9lem, the landscape changes dramatically. In spite of its historical fame as the \u201ccity of mangoes\u201d (for its beautiful mango trees, which line a small section of colonial B\u00e9lem), B\u00e9lem is largely bare of trees\u2014that is, aside from dispersed groves of a\u00e7a\u00ed palm. As one flies over B\u00e9lem, the green of the forest gives way to intermingled informal settlements of various ages, skyscrapers of various types, and hundreds (or thousands) of river channels, mostly for sewage drainage and garbage ditches. The city seems to be floating, almost drowning, in the immensity of the river-sea landscape of the Amazonian estuary-delta (Figure 3).<\/p>\n

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Figure 3.<\/strong> B\u00e9lem Metropolitan Region. Photo: Andressa Mansur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking at the city from above carries a degree of fascination. The reality on the ground, however, is strikingly different\u2014a combination of poverty and social inequality; attractive historical areas and new developments; intense social interaction and street conviviality; an assortment of evangelical churches, bars, clubs; and frequent scenes of prostitution and drugs. A significant parcel of the land is below sea level and consequently is subjected to flood impacts, which are becoming more frequent throughout the year. Squatting and expansion of subnormal houses and house agglomerations in low-lying floodplains are becoming widespread in the city (Figure 4). Census data from 2010 show that almost 55 percent of the population in the metropolitan region of Bel\u00e9m lives in subnormal agglomerations, making B\u00e9lem a leader in this detrimental trend among metropolitan areas in Brazil. Drug traffickers control many of these neighborhoods and have no interest in calling attention to the plight of the local population. Overall, the city confronts an enormous deficit of adaptive capacity to flooding, both in terms of provisioning of basic infrastructure and services, as well as in terms of supporting services, such as organized civil defense and emergency response systems, health centers, and post-flooding support.<\/p>\n

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Figure 4.<\/strong> B\u00e9lem Metropolitan Region (top) and example of a subnormal agglomeration in B\u00e9lem (bottom). Photos: Andressa Mansur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fact, in a national study<\/a>, B\u00e9lem was ranked highest among Brazilian cities for the deficit of infrastructure and services provided to poor and low-income families compared to higher-income families. Public water supply, sewage collection, and trash collection are unequally distributed and poorly managed across the city. An expanding network of over-ground plastic pipes provides water to the majority of the population (at least in public taps). However, shortages and disruption of water provisioning are common. Sewage connection is limited across the city and only historical neighborhoods have more than 80 percent of households connected to sewage system (see Figure 5).<\/p>\n

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Figure 5.<\/strong> Percentage of households connected to domestic effluent in census sectors of the B\u00e9lem Metropolitan Region. Data source: IBGE census data 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To make things worse, only 6 percent of the city has sewage treatment; the rest of the sewage is disposed in river channels, reducing water quality and spreading pollution widely. It is common to find open-air sewage in neighborhoods not connected to a sewage network. When not absent, the drainage system is often clogged with garbage and large amounts of sediments from rain runoff. Garbage is also often dumped next to river channels or into watercourses, creating new spaces for the spread of diseases, insects, and rodents, as well as drug trafficking and consumption (see Figure 6). With all these pressures, residents are constantly exposed to potential social and health risks. The impacts from floods exacerbate these risks, exposing people by direct contact with contaminated water that overflows from river channels during a disaster.<\/p>\n

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Figure 6.<\/strong> Example of open-air sewage (top) and garbage (bottom) disposed on river channels in B\u00e9lem. Photos: Andressa Mansur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While flooding impacts are not a new concern in Bel\u00e9m, public initiatives addressing flood mitigation have always been undermined or even neglected by the government. It is not uncommon for one to hear comments from local policymakers and even academics such as \u201cthe population is adapted to flooding\u201d. In other words, increasing exposure to floods is often internalized and accepted as part of local culture. While centuries of occupation of the tidal floodplains of the estuary-delta have, indeed, made flooding part of daily life, extending such analogies to precarious urban neighborhoods of the region illustrates the lack of attention to the economic damage and health risks confronted by large segments of the population.<\/p>\n

The municipal civil agency that is responsible for disaster risk management in the city is unprepared to respond to direct or indirect impacts of hazardous events and, besides, it is often ineffective. The city lacks all types of risk management actions, including initiatives aimed at providing information about flood mitigation, early warning systems, immediate response actions, and post-disaster response.<\/p>\n

Clearly, one of the impediments that prevents improvements in sanitation and flood mitigation is corruption. In 2004, the Brazilian government concluded a US$ 312.5 million project for risk-reduction and sanitation improvement in Bel\u00e9m, which was partly funded by the government of Par\u00e1; the rest of the coast was loaned from Inter-American development bank (or IDB). Known as \u201cProjeto de Macrodrenagem da Bacia do Una<\/a>\u201d, the project promised to be the biggest urban transformation in Latin America. Lack of proper management, corruption schemes, and improper use of the public funds have contributed to the failure of the project in providing flood risk mitigation and its creation of a series of other problems that, in some places, have even worsened flood impacts in the city (see Figure 7). Through the state prosecutor office, a group of harmed residents of the Una River watershed has acted to prosecute the agencies responsible for the project. Since 2005, these residents founded a civil organization called \u201cFrente dos Moradores Prejudicados da Bacia do Una<\/a>\u201d to fight for their rights and to engage in collective actions and public manifestations related to flood risk. Fortunately, residents are slowly getting organized to give voice to their situation.<\/p>\n

Listen to the voices of residents from B\u00e9lem<\/p>\n