As Rio de Janeiro prepares itself for the massive infrastructure requirements of an Olympic Games and, to a lesser extent, a FIFA World Cup, one of the greatest challenges and undoubtedly greatest opportunities is the redevelopment of the city´s many shanty towns, the favelas, into regular urban areas complete with normal city services free of open criminal activity: ultimately, this should be one of it not the top Games legacy post 2016.
Fortunately, the redevelopment activities begun soon after the city won the 2016 Olympics and the latest measure, the “urban ordering process” for the Mangueira favela, provides a range of noteworthy details and statistics demonstrating the huge scope of the undertaking.
On the morning of Sunday June 19 the city´s police forces, led by the special Police Operations Battalion (Bope), moved into the Mangueira locale to install a ‘Peacemaking Police Unit’ (UPP), essentially a small centre within the favela allowing a permanent presence. This often violent process has already occurred in a handful of the city´s 500 favelas with largely positive results, provoking a significant reduction in crime in most instances.
Beyond the police intervention, however, a range of accompanying infrastructural, economic and social activities are driving the urban redevelopment process, and, hence, creating opportunities for both residents and business alike. For the latter, as is made evident in the descriptions below, there are chances to contribute across a range of areas including sanitation, sustainability, design, transport systems and social integration.
Key measures being undertaken in the Mangueira urban ordering process include:
- seeking out and arranging solutions for irregular constructions and the improper use of sidewalks, including the demolition of 34 small buildings erected or used unlawfully and an improvised wall used to assist in drug activities
- imposing traffic regulations and opening new thoroughfares
- conserving and recuperating public lighting in streets, lanes and passageways weaving through the area (over 1,300 individual jobs undertaken by 90 technicians using seven vans and 11 trucks)
- the collection of 250 tonnes of rubbish from the streets and public areas within the favela, by a team of 100 workers with six trucks, two diggers and a compacting truck over the course of three days
- the recuperation of 1,191 square metres of asphalt, including 293 pot-holes and the regulation of guttering on 17 streets, undertaken by a team of 60
- assisting residents (initially 250 families) in applying for relevant government welfare programs, organising their documentation and identifying new requirements
Next to the police, other key bodies involved in the activities include the Rio Municipal Guard, the Special Secretary of Public Order, and the Municipal Secretary of Social Assistance.
Beyond Rio´s fight, similar issues are faced around Brazil with many major cities, including the twelve 2014 World Cup hosts, containing favelas of varying size and intensity: groups bringing new thinking and solutions to the table are most certainly welcome.