SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – In the last five years, the City of São Paulo failed to spend R$2.7 billion on flood control works in the city. In updated figures, between 2015 and 2019, the administrations of Fernando Haddad, João Doria and the current government of Bruno Covas, had planned to disburse R$3.8 (US$900 million) billion in interventions in the rivers, but only R$1.1 billion was invested in projects that materialized.
Among the proposals left behind are interventions in rivers that typically overflow, such as the Zavuvus, in the south zone, and the Corrego da Paciência, in the north zone, in addition to drainage services in the Lapa region, in the west zone, planned to be carried out during the construction of the Raimundo Pereira de Magalhães Bridge, which will connect the region to Pirituba, in the north zone.
The maintenance services of rivers and streams – removal of rubble and gutter desilting, a work more closely linked to urban management, are not included in this account. Between 2014 and 2019, the expected expenditure on these maintenance services was R$970 million.
According to data from the Municipal Treasury Department, compiled by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, 86 percent of this figure (R$835 million) was spent.
Source: Estado de S.Paulo