On Tuesday (17/10), Regional Development Minister Waldez Góes announced that Brazil will have, for the first time, a National Civil Protection and Defense Plan. The proposal is to strengthen the current National Civil Protection and Defense System to face risks and disasters in the country. He also added that that the plan should be delivered by “the middle of next year”.
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Public Hearing
The announcement was made during a joint public hearing of the Agriculture, Livestock, Supply and Rural Development Committee; Industry, Commerce and Services; National Integration and Regional Development Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. These committees represent sectors of the economy directly affected by natural disasters that commonly occur in the Brazilian territory.
The Development
Góes also said that Rio de Janeiro Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-RJ) was hired through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)T to prepare the plan. During the development stage, all states should be heard.
Disasters in the South and in the North
Extreme climatic phenomena have been causing disasters in the North and South of Brazil, with deaths, displacement of families, destruction of various properties, interruption of economic activities, and obstruction of highways, streets, airports, waterways and other logistical routes. In the North, an extreme drought caused by El Niño led to the reduction of the rivers’ level to a history low. In the South, the same phenomenon provoked the opposite scenario, with heavy rains leading to floodings, landslides and more.
Analysis:
Currently, 1,038 Brazilian cities are in an emergency situation, either due to the storms recorded in the South of the country, or the drought recorded in the North. The lack of a national plan surely places the government in disadvantage when it comes to quickly responding to the consequences of natural disasters, which caused R$ 401.3 billion in losses in the country from January 2013 to February 2023, according to a survey carried out by the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM). Even though the plan has great potential, corruption, bad allocation of resources and excessive bureaucracy can hamper its potential. Such issues have been seen in many episodes of the Brazilian history. For instance, according to investigations, after one of the biggest natural tragedies in the country, which occurred in 2011, in the Rio’s Serrana Region, authorities in some affected cities allegedly diverted part of the R$ 30 million allocated by the Federal Government to the reconstruction of seven municipalities, including: Nova Friburgo , Teresópolis, and Petrópolis.
