A survey carried out by councilwoman Elaine Mineiro (PSOL) shows that the City of São Paulo has not registered part of the floods that occurred in the municipality with the Climate Emergency Management Center (CGE).
The councilor’s team cross-referenced information released in the press, social networks and other public bodies with data provided by the CGE, which is updated daily with information on flooding points in São Paulo.
The result shows several unreported cases, especially in regions on the outskirts of the capital, which impacts the formulation of public policies and can influence the allocation of funds. The neighborhood of Cidade Tiradentes, in the east zone of the capital of São Paulo, for example, has not had any cases of flooding registered with the CGE since 2019, according to the survey.
“It is not true that since 2019 there have been no floods in the neighborhood, as shown by the City Hall system. They occurred and were reported, I myself was in flooded areas in the neighborhood. An example is the Souza Ramos Community, territory where my team was last week, accompanying the affected families. Meanwhile, the subprefecture of Sé had more than 500 records in the CGE”, says the councilwoman.
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Another example took place on January 29, in Guaianases, in the east zone of São Paulo. There were several flooding points in the neighborhood on this date. A newspaper article Newspaper of the same day shows that on the road to Poá, which is in the neighborhood, some people who were stranded were rescued by firefighters.
However, the CGE platform informs that in the east zone of the capital of São Paulo there was flooding only in the neighborhoods of Penha, Sampopemba, Itaquera and São Mateus, without any reference to the floods of Guianase.
Older cases also appear in the survey. A report by SPTV, a TV Globo program, showed, on January 14, 2015, another flood in Guaianases. At the CGE, the case was ignored. For the São Paulo City Hall, on that day, only Itaquera had flooding points.
In Guaianaes, the 2015 case was neglected by the City Hall / Art: Mandato Elaine Mineiro
In Jabaquara, south of São Paulo, the ii Civi application, which sends notifications and alerts about risk situations in São Paulo, recorded a case of flooding on Rua Tomasina, on January 15 of this year.
However, on the CGE website there are no records of flooding in Jabaquara. The São Paulo City Hall platform informs that in the south zone, only Mboi Mirim and Santo Amaro registered flooding points.
Flood in Jabaquara was not registered by the City of São Paulo / Art: Mandato Elaine Mineiro
According to councilwoman Elaine Mineiro, underreporting may explain the 47.5% drop presented by the City Hall in the number of floods between 2020 and 2021. The CGE recorded 1092 and 593 flood points, respectively, in both periods.
Between 2019 and 2021, during the governments of former Mayor Bruno Covas (PSDB) and current Ricardo Nunes (MDB), São Paulo City Hall investments in fighting floods did not show variations that explain the drop in the number of cases.
In 2019, the Municipal Executive invested BRL 484 million in fighting floods and flooding. The following year, R$ 658 million. In 2021, the value dropped to R$ 538 million.
In the maintenance of drainage systems, the city hall invested only BRL 215 thousand, BRL 271 thousand and BRL 251 thousand, in the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.
The councilor criticized the underreporting of cases. “There are certain stages for the formulation and consolidation of public policies. Among them is the analysis of scenarios through observations and data. In what we have observed in policies related to the prevention and management of floods, even with the assistance to the victimized population, the absence of official records in the main source of data on the subject, which is the CGE, means that the periphery, which is where most of the black population is, is removed from the formulation of these policies. This exclusion of the peripheries and, consequently, of the population black in flood management policies is a clear case of environmental racism in the city of São Paulo”, he argues.
The councilwoman announced the creation of a platform where citizens can publicize cases of flooding. To access, click here.
Other side
After being consulted, the São Paulo City Hall chose not to respond to the report in Brazil in factwho asked whether the municipal government recognizes that it stopped registering flood cases and how it explains the drop in the number of floods between 2020 and 2021.
Editing: Nicolau Soares
