{"id":41384,"date":"2018-01-25T15:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=41384"},"modified":"2023-08-23T12:20:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T15:20:34","slug":"inexplicable-sky-high-electric-bills-threaten-rio-das-pedras-escalate-fear-of-eviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=41384","title":{"rendered":"Inexplicable Sky High Electric Bills Threaten Rio das Pedras, Escalate Fear of Eviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Por<\/strong>tugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The last year, 2017, brought immense pressure to the West Zone<\/a> favela of Rio das Pedras<\/a> as Mayor Crivella’s Strategic Plan<\/a> marked it for a verticalization project to replace existing homes<\/a> with high-rise apartment buildings. Barely weeks into the new year, Rio das Pedras residents are once again feeling the pressure\u2014this time from the municipal electric utility, Light<\/a>. After enjoying time with family and friends for the holidays, residents were shocked to receive electric bills reaching up to R$400, R$500, R$600 (US$125-187) and beyond. One resident even posted a photo on Facebook of an electricity bill for over R$1,000 (around US$312); this bill was for a\u00a0kitchenette\u2014<\/em>a micro apartment with basic amenities.<\/p>\n

It is important to note that this has been a widely experienced phenomenon in recent years. Favelas across Rio de Janeiro that have received new electric measurement systems have subsequently\u00a0experienced skyrocketing electricity prices<\/a>. In Rio das Pedras\u2019 case, however, this extreme financial burden is adding to residents’ existing fear that despite saying there would be no evictions<\/a>, the City still plans\u00a0to level and reconstruct the neighborhood, leaving existing residents vulnerable. And given the city’s history shutting off the lights to instill fear<\/a> and desperation to weaken the resolve of communities it seeks to evict, the relationship between utility access and eviction is already well known.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bills are coming in more expensive than the actual rent in the community. It\u2019s really hard because the people don\u2019t use air conditioning. Most of them leave for work in the morning and return at night. It\u2019s not an isolated complaint from one or two residents, it\u2019s a majority of the residents, if not all,\u201d noted Andr\u00e9ia Ferreira, a member of the new Rio das Pedras Commission that formed to combat the threat of eviction<\/a>. \u201cSome people have already left Rio das Pedras because they can\u2019t afford to pay. Many are living in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

After beginning to regularize Rio das Pedras’ energy grid in 2014<\/a>, Light incorporated the neighborhood\u00a0into its “Efficient Community” network in March of 2015<\/a>, an endeavor that Rio das Pedras Commission member Evandro Teixeira Tavares says cost R$85 million (around US$27 million). The goal was to bring stable, efficient energy to a neighborhood that often experienced power outages and shortages. In the beginning the utility promised a flat rate of R$50 (US$16) per month, however, residents quickly noticed a huge increase in cost. The cost has kept increasing ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, we were informed that we would have a fixed rate that would be R$50 monthly. We were tricked, because this has never happened. Never has a bill come at this price.\u201d Ferreira continued to explain that residents also pay a public tax to bring light to the community’s streets, but that residents do not see where this money is being invested. \u201cIf you go into the streets and alleys of Rio das Pedras, they are all dark.\u201d As these leaders see it, Rio das Pedras residents are paying electricity bills that double, triple, and quadruple the prices of other neighborhoods, they still don\u2019t have good service, and some families are having to go to extreme measures to be able to afford to stay in the community.<\/p>\n

Some residents have entered into legal processes against Light but nothing has come of those cases. The Rio das Pedras Commission has stepped in as mediator and has been gathering complaints to take to Light. The Commission’s primary goal is to remove the electric meters that residents believe are faulty<\/a> and causing prices to be so high. However, they also believe the problem goes deeper than just bad equipment. \u201cThe most serious thing is that we know that all of this is part of a perverse plan<\/a>, a plan of social cleansing. I believe that this is all intentional. They are working, focused on kicking the residents out of Rio das Pedras, at whatever cost,\u201d Ferreira reflected.<\/p>\n

The Rio das Pedras Commission will lead a protest in the neighborhood on January 31, 2018<\/a>\u00a0against the pricing abuses by Light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The last year, 2017, brought immense pressure to the West Zone favela of Rio das Pedras as Mayor Crivella’s Strategic Plan marked it for a verticalization project to replace existing homes […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":41387,"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":[1293,1267,2555,1288,336,1329],"tags":[756,1495,1947,1949,11,65,25,485,2225,905,18,270,1445,21],"writer":[2431],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-gentrificationwatch","9":"category-monitoringcrivella","10":"category-highlight","11":"category-violations","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-community-organizing","14":"tag-eviction-tactics-canceled-services","15":"tag-eviction-tactics-concealed-threats","16":"tag-fair-pricing","17":"tag-forced-evictions","18":"tag-gentrification","19":"tag-human-rights","20":"tag-light-electricity","21":"tag-marcelo-crivella","22":"tag-price-hikes","23":"tag-protest","24":"tag-resistance","25":"tag-rio-das-pedras","26":"tag-west-zone","27":"writer-tyler-strobl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41384","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\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41384"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=41384"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=41384"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=41384"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=41384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}