Paraisópolis, Brazil. A city of favelas aiming to be egalitarian, sustainable and accessible

Paraisópolis, Brazil. A city of favelas aiming to be egalitarian, sustainable and accessible

My list

Author | Arantxa HerranzAlthough it is hard to measure or monitor the exact population living in shanty towns, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) calculates that approximately 11.4 million people (6% of the country’s population) live in one of the 6,329 favelas or slums, distributed across Brazil.The state of São Paulo is the richest in Brazil. The city is the economic and financial centre, but also the city in Latin America with the highest number of people living in shanty towns. NASA, using photographs taken with it satellites, illustrated the growth of this large city. The most notable change that can be observed from NASA’s photographs is the spread of the suburbs, where growth has been fastest. Over the last decade, the inhabitants living in shanty towns in São Paulo reached 1.7 million compared with the 800,000 living in the city centre during the same period.

The growth of favelas

ParaisopolisMuch of the suburban growth took place in favelas, which emerged when people built their homes on the steep hillsides in areas that were unoccupied as they were deemed inappropriate for construction. An estimated 20 to 30 per cent of São Paulo’s population lives in favelas, which poses a challenge for the municipal government because these unplanned communities often lack connections to the basic sewage, water and electricity services.Paraisópolis is one of the largest recognised favelas in Brazil. It is one of the most graphic examples of how poverty and the most extreme wealth can be separated by just a couple of streets. Around 20,000 people live in the approximately 331 square kilometres it covers. But Paraisópolis is also an example of how the situation and quality of life its inhabitants can be transformed and improved.

The marginalisation problem

Favelas are shanty towns in Brazil. Many people in these places have basic-salary jobs and, therefore, low incomes. These jobs tend to have irregular shifts and various work locations. This makes it even more difficult to collect accurate data to help with town-planning.The problem with these slums is that their urban housing conditions tend to be so hard that they are declared “intolerable” by the United Nations itself. Insecurity, lack of basic services (particularly water and sewage), inadequate and unsafe construction structures, overcrowding, location in dangerous areas and high concentrations of poverty, as well as social and economic deprivation, broken families, unemployment, economic, physical and social exclusion are just some of the characteristics of these shanty towns.ParaisopolisThis, in turn, results in the inhabitants of these areas having limited access to credit and to the formal job market due to stigmatisation, discrimination and geographic isolation. Their inhabitants are more likely to suffer water-related diseases such as typhus and cholera and HIV/AIDS.

Remodelling instead of demolishing

As a result of these circumstances, numerous governments decided to demolish these neighbourhoods as a way of eradicating all the problems associated with them. However, in 1980, Brazil decided to improve the quality of life in these shanty towns instead of demolishing them. The idea is that it is not just more humane to integrate the shanty towns into cities’ activities, but it would also be more economically beneficial than excluding them.Paraisópolis was one of the first places to try out this new strategy. One of São Paulo’s objectives is to take electricity sewage systems and drinking water to as many areas as possible. Furthermore, they are promoting a kind of “home exchange” programme: when a family abandons a shack to go to an apartment built by the government, a new family from a worse area can move into that shack until a better solution can be found.https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpo7fkolwoq/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheetThe experience gained also enabled a national “City statute” to be established in 2001, which establishes that cities must have master plans in place for these shanty towns. This document also outlines a series of tools that can be used by municipalities, such as allowing cities to create “areas of special interest” for disorganised shanty towns, formally recognising them and classifying them for social services.

An alliance of cities

This City Statute is supported by Cities Alliance, a global partnership made up of national and local governments, UN-habitat and the World Bank, focused on extending solutions to combat urban poverty. One of the first measures is to always guarantee that settlements have access to running water and sewage services.In 2006, the city of São Paulo also introduced an information system which enables it to know the condition of the shanty towns or areas in danger of flooding, so the cleaning and maintenance services in the city can be managed more efficiently.

The figures corroborate the change

The changes and transformation of Paraisópolis are clear and measurable with actual figures. For example, between 2000 and 2010, the employment rate among those aged 18 or over increased from 65.61% to 66.24%. At the same time, the unemployment rate went from 10.86% in 2000 to 5.60% in 2010.Another indicator of this improvement is life expectancy at birth, one of the figures from Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI). In Paraisópolis , life expectancy at birth increased by 3.3 years over the last decade, going from 72.9 years in 2000 to 76.1 years in 2010. In 1991 it was 69.6 years. While the infant mortality rate (in children under the age of 1 year) dropped from 20.7 per thousand live births in 2000 to 13.7 per thousand live births in 2010. In 1991, the rate was 25.2.Paraisópolis , therefore, proves that certain measures can be applied in the most adverse conditions to improve the lives of the inhabitants and for those responsible in the city to have more facilities available in order to manage these deprived areas more efficiently.Images | nakagawaPROOF/Flickr, Wikimedia, Pixabay

Related Content

Recommended profiles for you

EY
Emily Yates
City of Philadelphia
I sit withing the Office of Innovation and Technology and report to the Deputy CIO
PP
Paulina Piuzzi
Colaborativa
MM
Manuel Matutes Mestre
Aguaduna
Partnership Development. Data strategy
RP
Rossana Poblet
UN-HABITAT
Consultant
IS
Ibraheem SHEERAH
QOL
Chief Executive of Business
AA
Alice Assad Wassall
IPCCIC
Researcher
GV
gabriela valiño
Universidad Católica Argentina
Professor
MD
Merav David
Jerusalem Municipality
Director\\nInternational Relations & Exchange Division\\nAdministration for Culture, Social & Leisure Ac
DK
Devanand Koli
BVDUPUne
I am a student in Bharti Vidyapith social science center pune. Which cource I have admitted in MSW.
MS
MAR SANTARRUFINA
ALIMENTARIA
LL
HK
Hiba Karam
Technical university Darmstadt
Mater student
EM
Esther Martínez Saladié
IndeeLift, S.L.
Looking for IndeeLift Human Floor Lift distributors for the European Market
AA
asdasd1 asdasd
asdfas
cxvcxvxcv
CG
Cristina Galí
Diputació de Barcelona
Library director
EM
Erica Miranda
My House
I'm interested in urban planning in smart cities.
NB
niza ben zvi
haifa theatre
\\nAt the heart of the extensive cultural activity in the city of Haifa, which is a metropolis of cult
DM
Daniela Andreia Moreira de Sousa
APEXA
Técnico Superior de Serviço Social
ML
Manuel Lozano Rodriguez
Disclosing Social Science
Founder
DD
Darryl Durno
London Borough of Southwark
Head of Technology Transformation
FB
Fernando Betancourt Escobar
DATAYSERVICE
Gerente General