From Sanitation to Education: Brazil's Favelas Under COVID-19
Morro do Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro. Image taken by Ingrid Rafaele Rodrigues Leiria, on March 19, 2017.
Case Study: Brazilian cities
In the first half of 2020, the world as we know it was changed by the SARS-Cov-2 virus, known as COVID-19, leading to the infection of millions of people and the death of thousands worldwide by the date of this article’s publication. As we know, COVID-19 is a virus that is easily transmitted therefore the high need for prevention and frequent hand hygiene and the use of facial masks by the population (WHO, 2020). Yet when we look at the case of Brazil —where the daily death toll is now the highest in the world — there are a lot of social-economic problems that may restrict virus prevention and allow it to scatter among people faster.
Economic inequality also translates into an inequality in access to water and sanitation, increasing risks of disease transmission (UNESCO, UN-Water, 2020). In the last few decades, the progress toward improving access to hand-washing has been accelerated, an importance echoed in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, which looks to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG, 2020). Globally, in 2019, 26.1% of the global population, lacked access to hand-washing with available soap and water (Brauer et at., 2020).
In 2018, 68.3% of Brazilians households had access to basic sanitation treatment and 6.8% of the population, aged 15 or up, were illiterate. Due to an accelerated and not well-implemented urbanization program, the slums — also known as “favelas” — have spread throughout Brazilian cities. These small districts are characterized as a reflection of inequality and rapid urbanization, which led to a lack of infrastructure planning to receive citizens coming from more remote areas who were looking for job opportunities in big capitals, as is the case of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. According to the IBGE data from 2010, the HDI (Human Development Index) of São Paulo was 0.805 and in Rio de Janeiro was 0.799. Households with access to basic sanitation treatment represented 92.6% in São Paulo and 94.4% in Rio de Janeiro. And the index of children literacy between 6 and 14-year-old was 96% in São Paulo and 96.9% in Rio de Janeiro. Both cities do not represent a big variation comparing their indicators, and they are also known for being home of some of Brazil’s largest favelas.
In this article, two favelas will be discussed: the Paraisópolis (São Paulo) and Rocinha (Rio de Janeiro). These favelas have a high concentration of citizens living there, with HDI bellow 0.70 and with a significantly elevated number of deaths from COVID-19, Paraisópolis – Vila Andrade (63) and Rocinha (47) (May 27th, SMS-SP (2020); June 9th, DATA RIO (2020)). Due to the emergence of the virus, the vulnerability of social groups that already suffered from urban inequality has increased. Whether or not people have the right to have access to sanitation is one of the factors that ensures greater or lesser protection against the virus.
Residents of peripheries and favelas, as well as homeless people, are those who suffer most from such inequality. In this context, it is necessary to have drinkable water and sanitation as part of the welfare state and public policies. Due to this social context, it is significant to discuss the effects of sanitation and access to education in favelas from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in order to focus on the importance of regional development policy — not only emphasizing on times of a pandemic, but also to highlight the need for socioeconomic inclusion for the city's sustainable development.
The Urbanization and Sanitation Development in Brazil
According to the IAS report (2020), since 1940, Brazil underwent major social, economic, and political transformations resulting in large and lasting effects on basic sanitation. Brazilian cities grew with the arrival of immigrants and the migration of the rural population to urban areas, strongly impacting the services and housing infrastructures. The dissemination of the sanitation service as a local interest grew more complex from the urbanization process of cities throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Urban areas started to expand, ignoring the political and administrative limits of the municipalities.
But during the administration of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the Concessions Law (1995) created new rules for the operation of public services. In the early 2000s, under President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, the water and sanitation subject were encouraged by the creation of new laws, ministries, and programs. In 2008, the Pacto pelo Saneamento Básico: Mais saúde, qualidade de vida e cidadania (BRASIL, 2008) was enacted, which, in 2014, culminated in the Federative Pact to universalize access to basic sanitation services by 2033.
The initial goals predicted 100% drinkable water supplied in the country by 2023 and 92% of sewage treated by 2033. The United Nations Convention that recognizes basic sanitation as a human right separate from the right to drinkable water brought important legal and institutional reinforcement to the sanitation-related agenda in 2015. However, in Brazil, the problem with these laws is in implementation, since most of the sanitation plans were made between 2011 and 2013 when there was a prospect of universalizing water supply and sanitation in 20 years. But now, with the political and fiscal crisis of the state and federal government after 2016, these plans have been put on hold. Considering the structural measures necessary for sanitation, it is estimated that R$597,9 billions (US$ 122 billions) of investments will be needed in the period from 2019 to 2033 for universal sanitation in the country (IAS, 2020).
Morro do Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro. Image taken by Ingrid Rafaele Rodrigues Leiria, on March 19, 2017.
The case of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro: Paraisópolis and Rocinha
When we focus on the impacts of COVID-19 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, there were 40,017 (Painel Rio, 2020) confirmed cases in Rio de Janeiro and 83,076 in São Paulo (SAEDE, 2020) by June 11. The pandemic crisis made even more visible the enormous inequality that marks the urban space of these cities, with poor favelas and peripheries experiencing the lack of water and basic sanitation, with precarious homes, without ventilation and many people living in small spaces. In 2019 (IBGE, 2020) there were 7.09% of households living in subnormal agglomerations in São Paulo and 12.63% in Rio de Janeiro.
In São Paulo, Paraisópolis (district of Vila Andrade) is located in the South Zone of the city, it has more than 100,000 inhabitants and 21,000 households in an area of 10 km². It is considered the second-largest slum in São Paulo. (G1, 2019). According to Atlas Brasil (2010) the IDH-Municipality of Paraisópolis was 0.639. Also, it is estimated that 96% of the households have access to a private toilet and strained water, 29% of the population is in a situation of poverty, and the average monthly income is R$ 469 (US$95).
In a preventive approach to fight COVID-19, the Justice of São Paulo granted on April 7 an injunction that determined that the Basic Sanitation Company of the State of São Paulo (Sabesp) should supply water to all the favelas in the municipality served by the supply company. The company also had already put into practice some measures to benefit low-income families, such as the exemption from paying the bills of more than 2 million customers registered in the social tariff (the measure is valid for 90 days, from April 1) and distribution of more than 1,900 water tanks to residents who are unable to buy water tanks (Agência Brasil, 2020).
In Rio de Janeiro, Rocinha is also located in the South Zone of the city and is known as one of the biggest favelas in Brazil. According to the last IBGE (2020) census, there are about 25,742 households, and about 70,000 people living there. The favela started to grow when nordestinos and mineiros came from the northeast part of the country to the Rio de Janeiro to start working on big construction projects in the city, in a process of rapid urbanization and lack of public organization. According to the Atlas Brasil (2010), the IDH-Municipality of Rocinha was 0.662. Thus, it is estimated that 98% of the households have access to a private toilet and strained water, 29% of the population were in a situation of poverty and the average monthly income was R$ 525 (US$107). According to a study conducted by Casa Fluminense (2019), more than 2,200 hospitalizations were registered in 2018, due to diseases caused by the lack of basic sanitation. The study also shows that, if the nine main sewage treatment plants were to function fully, it would be possible to avoid the dumping of around 276 Olympic sewage pools in Guanabara Bay daily.
People living without basic sanitation earn lower wages than the population with access to water, sewage collection, and treatment. They are also more vulnerable to common diseases in areas where this infrastructure does not exist or is precarious, which adds to public health expenditures. Trata Brasil (2016) estimated that investments in sanitation sustained 142 thousand jobs per year in the country and generated R$ 13.6 billion (US$ 2.77 billion) per year of income in the Brazilian economy between 2004 and 2016. Meaning that for every R$1.00 (US$ 0.20) invested in jobs related to sanitation, an income of R$1.22 (US$0.29) was generated to the economy, a relationship that shows the income multiplier effect of investments in sanitation.
Considering employability and education, it is estimated that workers who lived in areas without access to proper sanitation had on average 6.8% lower wages than those who, with the same conditions of employability, lived in places with proper sanitation. In addition to the challenges with productivity, there are challenges with backwardness. As schooling positively affects workers' productivity and income, lower schooling means a loss in productivity and work remuneration. If access to proper sanitation and drinkable water services is given to a student who currently does not have these services, a 3.6% reduction in school delay is expected. This increases the labor productivity of future generations, affecting their standard of living.
Challenges to Overcome the Sanitation Problem while Fighting COVID-19
In sum, when we look at the local communities’ development, it is necessary to have a coordination of the local governments to define the goals of the expansion of basic sanitation and its sources of financing. The mayors and city councils need to take a leading role in municipal planning and inspection of contracts, acting to monitor and demand compliance with the established goals. Another important component is the strengthening of regulation with the definition of standards for the provision of the service. In this sense, the whole process must guarantee information transparency, stimulating a new cycle of citizen monitoring on the goals, deadlines, and efficiency. This kind of planning and coordinating is not an easy task, but there is no shortcut to advance into the basic sanitation agenda and towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
The future post-pandemic is still uncertain. Some of the measures to fight COVID-19 depend on the local, state, and federal government policies to help the population's needs. It is significant to call attention to the necessities of each locality which ends up requiring different attention and effort from the government. However, there are public policies that should be highlighted as the importance of the Unified Health System (SUS) in Brazil. In times of crisis, the state has the responsibility, together with the private institutions, to ensure clear and efficient answers to the population as a whole.
Another important agent is the civil society, with initiatives led by NGOs, community organizations, and other agents with actions as the distribution of basic food baskets for those who have lost income, and distribution of hygiene kits to reduce the contamination. During the pandemic, NGOs and social leaders who know the reality of these favelas are important actors to solve local problems and to demand public policies for water supply, basic sanitation, health, and education. Therefore, supporting and strengthening the work of community organizations is a fundamental task, during and after the crisis.
It should also be taken into consideration that President Jair Bolsonaro, as the country's chief of the executive, should have been playing his most active role in fighting the virus. However, since the beginning of the crisis, he has flouted isolation measures, considered the disease as a “little flu” and has put less attention on Brazil’s rising death toll because, according to him, death is “everybody’s destiny.” The president denies the seriousness of a pandemic that has already killed tens of thousands of people worldwide in just a few months. His actions end up generating political instabilities between other political actors and civic society.
Even though the Bolsonaro administration has always put first the importance of the economy, a plan with measures to assure citizens safety outside their homes should have been developed since the pandemic started. People could come back to work, but they would do that if they were protected, using masks and with other protectives measures developed to assure their lives’ protection when they had to leave their home to go to their workplace. It is known that it is necessary to build economic measures to resume employment and generate income. But all this requires the dialogue capacity and political coordination between governmental actors. The president should have been playing a leading role in uniting the country.
That is what the Brazilians need at this moment.
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Ingrid Rafaele Rodrigues Leiria is an economist with a MSc in Economics from Unisinos University, Brazil. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Apply Microeconometrics Policy in the Department of Economics and Statistics at Korea University, South Korea. Her researches and writings are focused on Latin American Countries, Microeconomic Policy, Public Policy and Local Development.
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