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,” Brazilian columnist Miriam Leitao wrote in the powerful daily O Globo after the predicted torrential rain on Monday and Tuesday last week left 10 people dead.
Independent risk analyst Moacyr Duarte said that 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 reporters.
Much of the blame has been heaped on Rio de Janeiro Mayor Marcelo Crivella, a former Evangelical pastor who is halfway through his term.
Already unpopular for his frosty attitude toward the city’s Carnival, Crivella faces impeachment over allegations that 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 that Rio has not spent anything on drainage works since the start of this year, a city government official told reporters that 103 million Brazilian reals (US$26.4 million) has been allocated for prevention works against flooding this year.
However, they admitted that the figure for the entire year was down more than 33 percent from 2016, the year before Crivella took office.
For decades, authorities have been unable to tame the city’s wild expansion as illegal construction proliferated in high-risk areas.
Analysts have said that 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,” Federal University of Rio de Janeiro civil engineering professor Mauricio Ehrlich said.
“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.
They sell land rights and control access to city services such as water and electricity.
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