Urban-Developing City(Rio De Janeiro)

• Problems in the shanty towns (favelas) of Rio de Janeiro include fires from illegally tapped electricity, flooding and landslides, lack of piped water and sanitation, disease, rubbish and pollution, poverty, crime, gangs, shootings and drug use
• Improvements to shanty towns (favelas) in Rio de Janeiro

  • Self-help schemes where local people form groups and use their skills to carry out improvements, with government providing basic materials
  • Site and service schemes where local authority provides building plots and basic brick houses with services
  • Cable car transport system between different parts of the favela
  • Superblock scheme replacing shanty towns with high rise apartments
  • New town of Barra da Tijuca built 20km from centre of Rio for wealthier residents
  • Police pacification to round up gangs and widen roads for access
• Charities like Developing Minds Foundation help build schools and run education, health and community programmes in the favelas
• Shanty Towns (favelas)- Rocinha


  • Basic, makeshift houses made of plastic sheeting, corrugated sheets
  • Some have brick walls and tin roofs
  • The houses are very overcrowded
  • Illegally often on waste land, next to factories or along roads and railways
• Problem-Electricity

  1. Illegally tapped from the city's power lines (gatos)

  2. Safety and fire risk
• Problem-Heavy tropical rain

  Flooding, landslides occur causing the houses to collapse
• Problem-Lack of piped water

  • Standpipes are shared between many people
  • Dengue fever, cholera
• Problem-Lack Sanitation

  • People have to go to the toilet in the street and there are open sewers
  • 1 toilet per 1000 people
  • Children play amongst sewage waste
  • Diseases such as cholera and typhoid
  • Life expectancy is low-56 years
• Problem-Rubbish

  • Attracts flies, rats
  • Toxic wastes -dangerous heavy metals from industries
  • Air pollution from small-scale industries that burn coal to make pots causes lung disease, TB
• Problem-Poverty

  • Most people earn very little money
  • Informal jobs-street vendors, shoe cleaners
  • Some turn to the blackmarket selling illegal items
  • Many sell drugs or turn to prostitution
  • Children sift through the rubbish looking for valuable waste
• Self-help schemes

  Small scale projects where local people form self-help groups and work together using their skills to carry out improvements
• Self-help schemes

  1. Government provides bricks, paint, cement and glass or small loans for residents to improve their housing

  2. Improved basic services like electricity, piped water, toilet blocks

  3. Created local businesses like cafes, entertainment, shops

  4. Roof top rain water collection improves health

  5. Some people granted legal ownership of land
• Site and service schemes

  • Favela Bairro Project - Slum to Neighbourhood Project
  • Local authority programmes provide building plots and basic brick houses, sewage pipes, stand pipes for water, electricity connection
  • Paved/widened roads, installed lighting to make it safer
  • Added school, health centres and sports areas to improve community spirit and health
  • Some people allowed to buy their homes
• Cable car transport system

  Allows people to travel to work and for education and health care
• Superblock scheme

  • Shanty town areas bulldozed and replaced with high rise apartments with modern facilities and running water, sanitation
  • Improved health but the poorest cannot afford the rents
• Solution-New town

  • Barra da Tijuca built along a motorway 20km from centre Rio
  • Wealthier residents have moved out to these luxury areas with modern facilities, shopping malls and leisure
  • Reduced overcrowding and pressure in shanty towns, but new shanty towns have developed next to the new rich apartments
• Pacification

  • Police have carried out raids and rounded up gangs
  • Widening the roads allows police vehicles in improving safety
• Charities

  • Developing Minds Foundation helps build schools and runs education programmes, after school clubs, community health programmes and mother groups and martial arts groups
  • Improved health, literacy and reduced crime