Walking the Streets of Belem
Socio-economic problems of Brazil:
Brazil is the world's fifth largest country, and within Brazil there are twenty-six states. In the state of Para, particularly the city Belem (population almost 1.5 million) there are a few socio-economic problems to talk about. According to a Canadian World Urban Forum 70 percent of the population in Belem, Brazil “live in conditions of poverty with 10 percent living on an income less than US$ 50 per month.
The city is faced with the problem of urban growth, and land occupation in unplanned settlements. Most of the immigrants live in shacks, and 50 percent of the population is without sewage systems, basic infrastructure, and hygiene. From a crime point of view, they live in a constant state of insecurity.” (www.unhabitat.org/documents/media_centre/wuf2006/WUF%208.pdf)
As far as Sewage systems:
Brazilian northern state capitals Manaus (Amapa state) and Belem (Parana state) will receive over R$400mn (US$205mn) investment through 2003, Gazeta Mercantil (Brazil) reported.” http://www.bnamericas.com/news/waterandwaste/Manaus,_Belem_to_Receive_R*400mn_Sanitation_Investment
The Belém municipality in northern Brazil will obtain US$68.7 million from the Inter-American Development Bank for a sanitation and urban environmental program in Estrada Nova watershed, which is home to about 220,000 people.
The loan will help finance the construction of 77 kilometers of drainage systems for rainwater to prevent flooding and the relocation of about 1,100 low-income families now living in hazardous areas. It will also support the construction of roads and parks along drainage channels in the second most populated of the city’s 13 urban watersheds.
“Residents will have access to cleaner water and that will reduce disease among children and adults,’’ said IDB project team leader Fernando Bretas. “Quality of life will improve significantly for the poor.’’
Basic infrastructure
Belém, located in Brazil’s Amazon region, has seen its population double in the past 30 years without the accompanying investments in infrastructure and urban planning. The loan is part efforts by the bank and the local government to improve living conditions in the city, which has 35 percent of its land prone to flooding. In 2004, the IDB completed the disbursement of a US$149 million loan to Belém to finance a similar sanitation project in Una watershed, which benefitted 176,000 people.
The loan, which accounts for the 50 percent of the total cost of the Estrada Nova project, has a five-year disbursement and grace period. It is denominated in U.S. dollars and will be repaid in 25 years.
Transportation
“It is impossible to solve the urban transportation problems in Belém city without considering the traffic in the metropolitan area. The coordination of the urban planning and the urban transportation system is also another factor that is very important, these two issues are closely related and one affect each other so they have to be integrated for a better development of the city. The financial integration is another important requirement for the implementation of the BRT system. In the BRT system the buses are integrated and the passengers can transfer freely from feeder services to trunk route without paying additional fare.”
“The present condition of the transportation system in Belém city need to be improved and a mass rapid transit should be implemented.
The management of the transportation system have to be done is a metropolitan level otherwise the actions will not reach their goals due to the discontinuity.
The public transportation should receive priority over the private car to encourage the people to shift to this mode of transportation and to reduce the number of private cars in the streets and consequently to decrease the traffic congestion.
The non-motorized mode of transportation is an important mode of transportation and needs to receive more attention in Belém case. The barrier-free measures are also very important to allow the same opportunity for the citizens to use the public transportation.”
rdgs.itakura.toyo.ac.jp/rd/pdf/thays.pdf
Education
“We affirm that literacy is the most significant foundation upon which to build comprehensive, inclusive and integrated lifelong and life-wide learning for all young people and adults. Given the magnitude of the global literacy challenge, we deem it vital that we redouble our efforts to ensure that existing adult literacy goals and priorities, as enshrined in Education for All (EFA), the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) and the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE), are achieved by all means possible.
The education of young people and adults enables individuals, especially women, to cope with multiple social, economic and political crises, and climate change. Therefore, we recognise the key role of adult learning and education in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education for All (EFA) and the UN agenda for sustainable human, social, economic, cultural and environmental development, including gender equality (CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action)” www.unesco.org/fileadmin/.../UIL/.../Belém%20Framework_Final.pdf
Through education Belem will stand to make a better and healthier living environment.
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