The script is always the same: an environmental tragedy occurs, politicians and authorities fly over the devastated region, government officials declare a state of public calamity and, as if they were not to blame, announce the emergency release of resources to remedy the damage. This was the case with the floods in São Paulo that resulted in the deaths of 65 people last year. It was like this when heavy rains caused landslides in the mountainous region of Rio and 918 deaths. This is how it is now, in Rio Grande do Sul. Last Sunday, the 5th, the state received a delegation formed by the President of the Republic, the heads of the Chamber, the Senate and the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU), in addition to thirteen State ministers. With an air of consternation, they left Brasília in a hurry with the promise of helping the people of Rio Grande do Sul in the worst natural disaster in their history. Mission leader, Lula flew over the capital, Porto Alegre, with the governor Eduardo Leite (PSDB), announced billion-dollar funds for the affected regions and promised that a prevention plan will finally come to fruition so that “we stop chasing misfortune”.
Given the history of inaction by public authorities, it is not an exaggeration to bet that the promise, as the usual script teaches, will not be fulfilled. After all, most of the actors who reach out to the state today have their share of responsibility for the tragedy. Despite the warnings from experts and the seriousness of the environmental issue, the issue does not sensitize the political class, which prefers to dedicate energy and funds to projects with more electoral appeal. As a consequence, the population is left unprotected. In 2022, the last year of available statistics, more than 1.5 million people were affected by flooding, floods and floods in Brazil, according to data from the National Water Agency (ANA). In the Gaucho calamity, more than 1.5 million people have already been affected by floods. In 2023, Rio Grande do Sul had already experienced at least four weather events caused by cyclones and persistent rains, which left around eighty deaths, but there are no records of major prevention measures taken since then. It was always like this.
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In operation for fifty years, the water containment system of Lake Guaíba in Porto Alegre, for example, suffers from a lack of repairs and was unable to stop the advance of the flood that took over the capital. “In general, we manage disasters reactively. Ideally, we combine reactive management with risk management, forming a kind of cycle: working on mitigation, preparation, forecasting and early warning projects and, in the face of a disaster, evaluating the impacts and focusing on recovery and reconstruction”, he says. researcher Luis Carlos Hernandez Hernandez, PhD in environmental technology and water resources from the University of Brasília (UnB). From 2013 to 2023, a period covering the Dilma Rousseff, Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro governments, Union investments for Civil Defense applied to repairs to damage caused by natural tragedies were almost three times greater than resources directed to planning and mitigating damage (see the picture). Remedy, therefore, is much more expensive than prevention — in financial terms and, mainly, in lives.
The data, not corrected for inflation and tabulated by the TCU since the Petrópolis disasters, which two years ago left 241 people dead, show that last year, the first of Lula’s current term, public resources were used to help victims, restore essential services and reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by bad weather were more than eighteen times greater than that allocated, in the same period, for the prevention of tragedies. In other words: the money always goes later, not before. “If the public authorities do not think in terms of effective policies for a structuring and prevention plan, there will always be a tragedy like this. There is a lack of infrastructure to act”, said congresswoman Fernanda Melchionna (PSOL-RS), one of the only parliamentarians from Rio Grande do Sul to allocate part of her amendments to the prevention of climate disasters in the state. The case of the Rio Grande do Sul bench in Congress is illustrative of politicians’ lack of interest in investing resources in this area. Rio Grande do Sul has 31 federal deputies and three senators, who together had the right to indicate around 1.5 billion reais in individual and bench amendments to the 2024 Budget.
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Of all of them, only three reserved funds for the environmental area — Melchionna and PT deputies Maria do Rosário and Reginete Bispo. The value indicated by the trio, combined, was 1.8 million reais — 0.1% of the total available to the entire Rio Grande do Sul bench. The lack of interest has an electoral explanation — and, of course, an electoral one. Removing families from risk areas is a laborious and, above all, unpopular measure. Furthermore, preventive actions do not usually generate as many votes, do not allow for inauguration ceremonies and commemorative plaques and do not have the same appeal as the construction of a square or the delivery of an ambulance. “The low transfer to prevention has to do with the idea that this investment does not lead to votes”, criticizes Melchionna. “The Legislature always works in the short term, which is not correct. This is cultural. Those who invest in preservation invest in the medium and long term”, adds deputy Maria do Rosário, author of an amendment that allocates 300,000 reais for “environmental education” in the state.
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As we know, planning is not exactly the strength of the Brazilian political class, which acts for immediate results that are easily assimilated by the population. This logic favors tragedies. In front of them, representatives of the three powers run after the losses, always arriving late to help. The Lula government announced, on Thursday, the 9th, a package worth 51 billion reais in measures for Rio Grande do Sul, which include advance credit and benefits, resources for projects and payment of extra installments of unemployment insurance. In a partnership between Planalto and the presidents of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), a legislative decree was also approved that allows the emergency transfer of billion-dollar resources to Rio Grande do Sul , without jeopardizing the fiscal target. The government also announced that parliamentarians will be able to reallocate almost 500 million reais in amendments to help with the reconstruction, in multiple areas, of the Rio Grande do Sul territory. This window will allow deputies and senators to correct the error they made in neglecting the environmental issue when they allocated their amendments to the 2024 Budget. “To prevent tragedies like the one in Rio Grande do Sul, it is of particular importance to develop water management plans rainwater and the creation of guidelines for risk management”, says Hernandez.
Obviously, it is not possible to control in advance the volume of rain that will fall in a given region, but land occupation policies and containment of the disorderly growth of cities and structural works to drain water can reduce the volume of damage to the population. A good example comes from China. Since 2012, after several Chinese cities suffered human and material losses due to floods, the concept of “sponge cities” has been adopted throughout the country, which brings together low-impact measures, such as parks that function as retention basins and water detention, permeable pavements, floodable squares, green roofs and infiltration trenches along roads and streets. With 21 million inhabitants, the capital, Beijing, also complements its measures with a robust forecasting and early warning system and traditional strategies, such as swimming pools and tanks with pumping systems. In countries that have earthquakes as a routine, such as Taiwan, investments in earthquake-resistant buildings and planning for warnings and responses to earthquakes helped the population last month to face the biggest earthquake in 25 years. Thousands of lives were spared.
The response to the climate tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul, which demands administrative efficiency, also has an electoral component. Lula made a point of making a difference with his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, who beat the PT member in the state in 2022, by remembering that the captain was riding a jet ski in Santa Catarina while Bahia was suffering from floods. Before embarking for Porto Alegre on the 5th, the president personally called Arthur Lira and Rodrigo Pacheco to invite them to fly over the flood region. He also called the acting president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Edson Fachin, and minister Bruno Dantas, who heads the TCU, the court responsible for inspecting the use of public money. It was a way of showing unity between the powers in helping the people of Rio Grande do Sul and diluting responsibilities. The president knows that, depending on the government’s commitment, he can reap laurels or unpopularity.
In the journey of just over two hours between Brasília and Porto Alegre, Lula promised unrestricted assistance and defended the urgency of different relief fronts for victims of the rains, but it did not go unnoticed among the passengers that he also had time to, in conversations on board, even discussing risks to the STF with a possible strengthening of the right in Congress after the next elections. The electoral issue is on the minds of the president and politicians in general. So far, nothing more. The problem is when their conveniences prevail over the needs of the population and contribute to disasters in multiple areas, material losses and deaths. The script serves as a warning: the tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul will be repeated there and in other places if the authorities continue to move only after the fait accompli.
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Published in VEJA on May 10, 2024, issue no. 2892
Tags: Unpreparedness neglect tragedy
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