{"id":28808,"date":"2016-05-12T10:15:10","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T13:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=28808"},"modified":"2020-08-07T14:04:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T17:04:03","slug":"after-years-of-waiting-morar-carioca-finally-launched-in-pica-pau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=28808","title":{"rendered":"After Years of Waiting, Morar Carioca Finally Launched in Pica-Pau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Last Saturday, May 7, the City launched long-awaited<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Morar Carioca<\/a> upgrades in the\u00a0Cordovil<\/a>\u00a0region of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s North Zone<\/a>. Five communities will receive upgrades<\/a> in this phase of the program: Pica-Pau<\/a>, Br\u00e1s de Pina, Bom Jardim, Roraima and Divineia. Mayor Eduardo Paes<\/a> spoke at the launch\u00a0ceremony attended by over 100 residents, as did a number of government officials, including Municipal Housing\u00a0Secretary S\u00e9rgio Zveiter and Pedro Paulo Carvalho Teixeira, Executive Secretary to Mayor Paes and candidate in the upcoming mayoral election. <\/span><\/p>\n

Communities in the Cordovil district have developed largely since the early 1960s with little government assistance, and are in urgent need<\/a> of infrastructure upgrades. Thousands of homes not properly connected to the City\u2019s water or sewerage system<\/a> instead rely on a stormwater<\/a> drainage channel that flows into the Guanabara Bay<\/a> and consistently floods streets and enters residents\u2019 homes through showers and taps during heavy rains. In the case of Pica-Pau, several dozen homes situated on a precarious slope are also in danger of collapsing<\/a>. Residents have requested government support in upgrading infrastructure and improving sanitation<\/a> conditions for decades, with little notable success<\/a> before the promise of Morar Carioca projects. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Morar<\/a><\/p>\n

The Cordovil district was selected to receive upgrades<\/a> through Morar Carioca in 2011, but the project plans were cancelled<\/a> without warning or explanation in January 2013, just months after Eduardo Paes’ reelection. Last summer, city officials returned to the communities to survey the area and informed residents that the project had received new funding and would be implemented, once again in an election year. Residents were told the works would begin in April, but a scheduled launch was canceled with no clear explanation. The lack of transparency and action throughout this six-year process has led many residents to question the motivations of the City. Saturday\u2019s event was the first indication in years that this project will in fact be realized. <\/span><\/p>\n

In his remarks on Saturday, Mayor Paes did not account for the three year delay, but praised the efforts of Morar Carioca in bringing essential services to favela residents. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to discuss the government obligation to provide pavement, water<\/a>, sewerage<\/a>, street lighting\u2013these things are obvious. It is absurd to reach the 21st century and still have places in Rio de Janeiro without these things. The Morar Carioca program looks to these communities in our city, which is a huge reality, and looks to complete this work with dignity…We prove here that the money exists to do all of this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Municipal<\/a><\/p>\n

Similarly, Pedro Paulo\u2019s presence and brief remarks indicate he has aligned himself and his campaign with Morar Carioca. In this sense Pedro Paulo is following Paes\u2019 example of promoting the hugely popular program before elections. Unfortunately for residents of the Cordovil district, the heightened rhetoric around favela upgrades<\/a> during Paes\u2019 2012 reelection bid did little to deliver the promised projects. <\/span><\/p>\n

Reactions to the launch\u00a0of Morar Carioca varied.\u00a0<\/span>Maria do Carmo da Silva, a resident of Pica-Pau for over 30 years, said she hopes the projects will improve the environment with better sanitation and more frequent trash collection, which the neighborhood desperately needs. But, she added, \u201cthis is a wonderful place\u2013we have so many good things here, we just lack these basic services.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Irenaldo<\/a><\/p>\n

Other residents of Cambuci, which borders Pica-Pau, expressed frustration that their small neighborhood was not included in the plans despite suffering from serious challenges with water supplies and sewerage. Several women said they feel helpless and abandoned by public authorities, without whom they have little hope of improving their sanitation infrastructure. <\/span><\/p>\n

Irenaldo <\/span>Honorio da Silva, president of Pica-Pau\u2019s neighborhood association said past experience has taught the community to not assume this process is over. He obtained direct contact information for both Pedro Paulo, promising to \u201cstay on top of him,\u201d and for the lead engineer for the projects, who Irenaldo said this time \u201cisn’t going to mess around, no.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Last Saturday, May 7, the City launched long-awaited\u00a0Morar Carioca upgrades in the\u00a0Cordovil\u00a0region of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s North Zone. Five communities will receive upgrades in this phase of the program: Pica-Pau, Br\u00e1s […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":28816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1854,1288,1333,1271,335,1329],"tags":[2063,2062,2061,509,2065,381,386,531,151,678,147,37,519,301,2064,535,373,158,1981,692,206,370],"writer":[1304,1994],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-housingwatch","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-event-reports","10":"category-favelaqualities","11":"category-policies","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-bom-jardim","14":"tag-bras-de-pina","15":"tag-cambuci","16":"tag-cordovil","17":"tag-divineia","18":"tag-electioneering","19":"tag-trash","20":"tag-guanabara-bay","21":"tag-landslide-risk","22":"tag-launch-event","23":"tag-morar-carioca","24":"tag-north-zone","25":"tag-pica-pau","26":"tag-public-policy","27":"tag-roraima","28":"tag-sanitation","29":"tag-sewerage","30":"tag-smh","31":"tag-stormwater","32":"tag-trash-collection","33":"tag-upgrading","34":"tag-water","35":"writer-meg-healy","36":"writer-sabrina-norris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28808"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=28808"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=28808"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=28808"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=28808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}