A group representing residents of the Ermelino Matarazzo neighborhood, which is located in a peripheral region of the East Zone of São Paulo, filed a lawsuit asking the city hall to present a flood containment plan, in addition to a series of janitorial measures.
The lawsuit, filed by the Padre Ticão Institute, highlights the large-scale flooding that took place on March 13, which caused financial losses and offered enormous risks to the population of Ermelino Matarazzo.
The institute recalls that the Public Prosecutor’s Office called and the City Hall took measures against flooding after the death of an elderly woman in the upscale neighborhood of Moema, in the Center-South Zone of the city, on the 8th. The objective is to seek similar treatment.
A report issued by an architectural firm showed that the water rose to levels close to 1.2 meters. Even residences and commercial buildings that have floodgates have suffered losses, as these structures are usually about 1 meter high. And it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.
For this reason, the action asks the city hall to provide for the installation of storm drains, drainage channels and pipes; develop specific projects for the areas most affected by the floods in Ermelino Matarazzo and carry out maintenance services on devices that already exist, but which are damaged.
“It is not possible to normalize, in the periphery, that the water reaches 1.2 meters above street level, dragging cars, invading businesses, flooding cars and leaving a scenario of chaos and abandonment for the resident”, says the education teacher Douglas Samoel, resident of Ermelino Matarazzo, member of Instituto Padre Ticão.
O Brazil in fact contacted the press office of the Municipal Secretariat for Urban Security of the City of São Paulo and did not receive a response. If there is a response, this text can be changed.
“There are four million people in the East Zone. It is not possible that we will only be remembered during the electoral period. Where is the public power? Where are the public policies?”, asks Douglas Samoel.
Who was Father Ticao?
Father Ticão, who gives the name to the institute that filed the lawsuit, died on January 1, 2021, after a life dedicated to supporting popular movements. Born in the city of Urupês in São Paulo under the baptismal name Antonio Luiz Marchioni, he arrived in the state capital in the 1970s.
In the first moments of his political action, he supported strikes by the so-called bóias-frias and teachers in the region of Araraquara. In the 1980s, he participated in the occupation of a building belonging to the State Department of Housing, in a movement to pressure then-governor Franco Montoro to build housing developments.
In the East Zone of São Paulo, he played a relevant role in leading movements for the creation of the Hospital de Ermelino Matarazzo and in the implementation of a campus of the University of São Paulo, known as USP Leste.
Editing: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
