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Rio de Janeiro shantytown residents strike a deal with government
Thu, 05/28/2009 - 13:31
- Length: 4:51 minutes (4.44 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
In Rio de Janeiro, low-income favela, or shantytown, residents are coming to a compromise with their state government. The state was planning to construct walls around 13 favelas to prevent their expansion into the surrounding forests. Representatives from affected communities met with the state’s governor, and appear to have reached a mutually agreeable solution. Zoe Sullivan reports.
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Rocinha
Enjoyed your report. But please don't repeat the canard that Rocinha is the largest favela in Latin America. With a population of somewhere between 150,000 and 250,000 people, it is perhaps the largest in Rio de Janeiro. But there are bigger squatter communities in other Latin American countries.
Also, your repetition of the word shantytown is a bit misleading. I lived in Rocinha for a couple of months and, while construction can be haphazard, most of the buildings are made from reinforced concrete and brick and are several stories tall. Rocinha is a densely developed community, and can no longer in truth be called a shantytown.
The compromise the residents reached sounds like it might work. It reminds me of the policy Istanbul implemented to prevent some of the squatter communities far out on the Asian side of the city from encroaching on the forests surrounding Omerli reservoir. The city did build some small walls, but the most important tool was to work with the residents to encourage the communities to control their own growth.