Sao Paulo Shanty Town Management GCSE Case Study Geography

The LIC city that I have studied is Sao Paulo in the SE of Brazil; it is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere. Greater Sao Paulo has a population of 27 million, 1/3 of this 27 million live in the 2500 favelas of Sao Paulo. These favelas and slum housing comprise of 70% of the area of Sao Paulo. There are 3 major favelas in Sao Paulo, Heliopolis, Paraisopolis and Jaguare. These are all now approaching 40 years old. There have been several mitigation strategies which have been implemented. The first method which the government tried was the clearance of the shanty towns. An example of this is Pinherinho squatter camp. This evacuation did not go to plan as some of the 6000 residents began donning helmets and shields and started building barricades to resist the eviction order. Pinheirinho has been squatted for eight years, without any government intervention. This type of violence may even lead to fires which could be devastating for example in the Sonia Riberio favela in Sao Paulo’s southern neighbourhood of Camp Belo. Another problem is that once people have been evicted they just simply will move elsewhere. Governments have stopped trying to clear the slums. Another method is housing developments an example of this was Projeto Cingapura. The government cleared large areas of shanty towns and tower blocks were built, the shanty town residents were re-housed. They cleared out favelas abutting rivers, railway lines and highways. The project developed over a number of shanty towns (including Pariasopolis) and aimed to re-house 42000 people. The new developments can cost between 10 -15 times more than slum upgrading. There is also an issue that some families from the slum cannot afford to move into the new developments, households pay $60 initially and then between $18 and $26 per month for a 20 year mortgage. Another problem is that it destroys the dynamics of the favela and residents expressed a strong desire to stay not to be relocated. Relocated sites are too far from employment areas because of lack of available space, especially in the informal sector. Official policy began to shift towards slum upgrading, instead of eradication. Slum upgrading is the process in which existing self built homes are upgraded. The streets are paved draining is established and electricity and street lighting are installed. This leads to a less institutionalised feel, like the housing developments, and more a neighbourhood feel. Upgrading comes as a package of basic services; this includes legalizing the land and formalizing. An example of slum upgrading is in Parisopolis where upgrading solutions are working. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also played their part in improving shanty towns. They teach skills to children, these include English, singing and dance. They provide jobs and other benefits to residents such as pensions and medical care. Unilever have improved kindergarten play areas, educates teachers, community laundry and created a volleyball centre. “The centres aim to use volley ball as an educational tool to improve the lives and outlook of low income children and youths by introducing them to the values, vitality and joy of sport.” There are also site and service schemes, these are top-down schemes. This is when the Brazilian government begins the improvement process by installing basic services, like electricity, clean water supply and sewage disposal, and they sometimes offer small loans and building materials or equipment. This will encourage residents to improve and build their homes by their own efforts. This also helps to boost community spirit as the neighbourhood works together. This was used in the Santo Andre shanty town have undertaken this and it cost two thirds of the Cingapura unit price. Another example is the Diadema shanty town which cost $30 million and improved the quality of life for 80000 people. However the success of this scheme depends on the motivation of the local people, it is a small scale community based project. The advantages of this scheme are that it can be done in stages and it can also improve local skills. Advocacy is the grassroots organisations formed to give a voice to shanty town dwellers to get their issues aired in national government. These tend to involve women who protest for basic services. Examples are UNAS and the Union of Heliopolis Residents Association. There has also been a partnership between the Brazilian government and the World Bank that has delivered water and sanitation to a growing number of Sao Paulo’s favelas called PROSANEAR. There are also micro lending schemes which lend small sums of money to develop small scale businesses. “City planners think it will take 20 years for land titles to be granted in all Sao Paulo’s slums, and for public electricity and water supplies to replace clandestine ones.” However by using these strategies and the quality of life in favelas do increase then there is a concern that it would encourage more migrants into the favelas. One solution to this problem is to increase the quality of life in the rural areas which would reduce the amount of rural to urban migration. These new edge cities will encourage people to live away from the city. However a problem of this is that it would cause mass urban sprawl