After experiencing one of the biggest floods in its history, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, has the challenge of preparing to face severe weather events in the coming years.
This is one of the themes evaluated by the Sustainable Cities Institute (ICS) in the survey Great Challenges of Brazilian Capitalswhich brings together data and indicators focusing on the 2024 municipal elections.
In a ranking which measures the risk management strategies of the 26 capitals, Porto Alegre appears in 22nd place. According to the survey, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul has verified 44% of the 25 strategies against floods, flooding and landslides.
The challenge for the administration that will take over the city hall from 2025 to 2028 is to reach 81% of the strategies fulfilled. For 2030, the goal is to reach 100%.
Among the strategies evaluated are the development of laws that cover the prevention of floods or gradual floods, flash floods or sudden floods; legislation on land use and occupation and control and inspection mechanisms to avoid occupation in areas susceptible to disasters; in addition to a contingency plan.
According to an ICS analysis, more than 90% of Brazilian cities do not have sufficient strategies to prevent and manage climate risks. In Rio Grande do Sul, of the 497 cities, 304 have less than 20% of the strategies verified.
For Igor Pantoja, coordinator of Institutional Relations at ICS, the indicators show that the prevention and management of these climate events are not being treated with the urgency that reality requires:
“This type of policy strategy aimed at preventing and managing these disasters or the effects of climate change, on how to deal with this, is absolutely fundamental. There is very little dedication from public authorities to dealing with this issue, because this often involves dealing with the issue of floods and the issue of land occupation. And then there is pressure from the real estate market, so it is an issue that we know is not simple.”
Information about these strategies was obtained from the Basic Municipal Information Survey (Munic 2020), carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and answered by the municipalities themselves.
In May this year, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul faced flooding due to the Porto Alegre rains. – Gustavo Mansur/Palácio Piratini
Action Plan
At the end of September, Porto Alegre City Hall released the final report of the Climate Action Plan, which brings together 30 mitigation and adaptation actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience.
The final report will be transformed into a bill that will be analyzed by the City Council.
Elections
Although Porto Alegre’s vulnerable situation has been known at least since the 1941 flood, the biggest in history, the disaster that occurred this year is not receiving the centrality it deserves in electoral campaigns, in the assessment of professor Rualdo Menegat, from the Instituto de Geosciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Ufrgs).
“This issue should be central, because it is not just about recovering and carrying out protection works, but it is fundamentally about having a political and administrative agenda that can show the city that it is possible to face severe times in the 21st century by living here in Porto Alegre. And this is a topic that cannot be left for any other moment than this, which is the moment of defining the city’s destiny”, he said.
For him, the agenda is weakly present in the majority candidacies and is almost absent in the candidacies for councilors.
“If on the one hand, he [o desastre climático] somehow guides the majority candidacies – from my point of view in a weak way – he is even more absent in legislative candidacies. And this is really worrying, because governance is carried out by the Executive and the Legislature, which represents the will of society”.
The professor cites the importance of the community participating in the development of the city’s risk management strategies. “It needs to be articulated from a scientific and community point of view. It needs to be in the palm of the hands of the residents of each community, who must know the risks, the vulnerabilities of the place where they live and mainly also in terms of developing emergency plans, prevention plans, developing a social intelligence of the place that enables these communities to have a security perspective and at the same time know how to act when necessary”, assesses Menegat.
Other indicators
In Education, Porto Alegre has the second lowest index in the Basic Education Development Index (Ideb) in the municipal network in the initial years of primary education. With a score of 4.7 on a scale of 0 to 10, in the initial years of elementary school, the city is only behind the capital of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal (4.5). The goal for 2028 is to reach 6.1 and for 2030, 6.7.
Ideb is the main instrument for monitoring the quality of basic education in the country. By gathering data on the approval rate and performance of students in Portuguese and mathematics, it investigates performance and indicators of school flow and trajectory.
In the health area, indicators show that in Porto Alegre, black, brown and indigenous people live on average almost ten years less than white and yellow people. For the first group, the average age of death is 73.8 years and for the second, 64.3 years. The goal for 2030 is to reach an average of 75.9 years, with equal rates.
The data are from the Mortality Information System of the Ministry of Health, with reference to 2022.
