Berliner Boersenzeitung - In Brazil, a damaged city lives on edge of abyss

EUR -
AED 4.301388
AFN 81.339917
ALL 97.793215
AMD 449.822133
ANG 2.095785
AOA 1073.877214
ARS 1477.8043
AUD 1.80227
AWG 2.107938
AZN 1.953194
BAM 1.953268
BBD 2.364834
BDT 143.24429
BGN 1.953765
BHD 0.441434
BIF 3444.136711
BMD 1.171077
BND 1.498058
BOB 8.093507
BRL 6.412459
BSD 1.171281
BTN 100.547644
BWP 15.626474
BYN 3.833031
BYR 22953.104232
BZD 2.35265
CAD 1.601231
CDF 3378.556766
CHF 0.935052
CLF 0.02873
CLP 1102.498888
CNY 8.402363
CNH 8.406252
COP 4721.89855
CRC 591.533101
CUC 1.171077
CUP 31.033534
CVE 110.434311
CZK 24.645338
DJF 208.124315
DKK 7.460052
DOP 70.322766
DZD 151.805596
EGP 58.163163
ERN 17.566151
ETB 162.55056
FJD 2.636439
FKP 0.857996
GBP 0.860443
GEL 3.1851
GGP 0.857996
GHS 12.175994
GIP 0.857996
GMD 83.746883
GNF 10136.840645
GTQ 9.003328
GYD 245.042313
HKD 9.192818
HNL 30.600328
HRK 7.537987
HTG 153.221355
HUF 399.838412
IDR 19044.518483
ILS 3.914541
IMP 0.857996
INR 100.478444
IQD 1534.310828
IRR 49331.608397
ISK 142.613315
JEP 0.857996
JMD 186.937643
JOD 0.830262
JPY 171.083185
KES 151.619576
KGS 102.410576
KHR 4708.899653
KMF 492.435197
KPW 1053.969363
KRW 1609.888811
KWD 0.357761
KYD 0.976018
KZT 608.431194
LAK 25236.703583
LBP 104928.476501
LKR 352.393137
LRD 234.801086
LSL 20.796139
LTL 3.457885
LVL 0.708373
LYD 6.31237
MAD 10.55784
MDL 19.759046
MGA 5136.340942
MKD 61.557682
MMK 2458.723874
MNT 4196.670975
MOP 9.470422
MRU 46.440791
MUR 52.674928
MVR 18.042732
MWK 2030.567452
MXN 21.86138
MYR 4.959485
MZN 74.901921
NAD 20.796139
NGN 1792.250706
NIO 43.104117
NOK 11.857691
NPR 160.87643
NZD 1.951324
OMR 0.450279
PAB 1.171281
PEN 4.175471
PGK 4.910634
PHP 66.329739
PKR 332.779765
PLN 4.251766
PYG 9333.898979
QAR 4.281649
RON 5.065843
RSD 117.16512
RUB 92.163356
RWF 1691.307289
SAR 4.392132
SBD 9.763178
SCR 16.525032
SDG 703.228077
SEK 11.146267
SGD 1.498194
SHP 0.920282
SLE 26.290837
SLL 24556.898127
SOS 669.332238
SRD 43.625536
STD 24238.924258
SVC 10.248713
SYP 15226.253808
SZL 20.790047
THB 38.173933
TJS 11.273185
TMT 4.110479
TND 3.393194
TOP 2.742782
TRY 46.825826
TTD 7.938708
TWD 34.049039
TZS 3091.867482
UAH 49.00297
UGX 4201.552857
USD 1.171077
UYU 47.009055
UZS 14707.931763
VES 128.20187
VND 30617.801538
VUV 138.688767
WST 3.035441
XAF 655.096506
XAG 0.031929
XAU 0.000352
XCD 3.164894
XDR 0.81167
XOF 655.107679
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.575941
ZAR 20.838315
ZMK 10541.098103
ZMW 28.372731
ZWL 377.086235
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

In Brazil, a damaged city lives on edge of abyss
In Brazil, a damaged city lives on edge of abyss / Photo: NELSON ALMEIDA - AFP

In Brazil, a damaged city lives on edge of abyss

A few steps from a cliff-edge, Deusimar Batista is hanging clothes to dry in her yard. Near it, a neighbor's house used to stand on a residential street, but they have all collapsed into the abyss.

Text size:

Batista is from the city of Buriticupu, in northeastern Brazil, where residents are living a nightmare: the earth beneath them is literally breaking open into enormous craters, which have swallowed streets, houses and even killed people.

"It used to be really nice here," said Batista, a slight 54-year-old who works as a seamstress.

"But now it's like this -- all destroyed," she told AFP, motioning to the gorge that now marks the edge of her yard, empty except for some trash at the bottom.

Experts say the rare phenomenon is caused by deforestation and a lack of urban planning in the city of 70,000 people, located in the impoverished state of Maranhao.

Buriticupu, which sits at the edge of the Amazon rainforest, expanded quickly in the 1970s as the site of a housing program for rural workers.

Rampant logging has decimated the region's trees, and with them the soil's ability to absorb rainwater, according to scientists.

That, coupled with a lack of adequate drainage systems, has caused erosion that looks like something out of a horror film.

Locals call the giant craters "vocorocas," which means "torn earth" in the Indigenous Tupi–Guarani language.

- Gaping craters -

They start as small cracks in the ground, but tend to expand with heavy rain, growing into gaping craters.

Seen from the sky, they look like big red- and orange-hued canyons swallowing pieces of the city as they advance.

The mayor's office says seven people have died falling into the craters since they began to form two decades ago.

Around 50 houses have collapsed into them, and more than 300 others are risk, it says.

The city declared a state of emergency last month, seeking funds from the state and federal governments for infrastructure projects to fight the erosion.

In all, there are 26 craters in the city, the deepest of which reaches 70 meters (230 feet), according to authorities.

Rainy nights have become a source of terror for Batista.

"I can't sleep when it rains. I stay awake all night," she said.

"I'm afraid of going to sleep and dying if there's a collapse."

- 'It's come to this' -

Erosion happens in every city, said Augusto Carvalho Campos, a geographer at Maranhao Federal University.

But in Buriticupu, the issue is "much bigger," due to "rapid urban growth without the necessary planning, a lack of sanitation and drainage infrastructure, and deforestation," he said.

Deforestation has surged in the region over the past several decades, driven by the logging industry, with devastating impact on the soil, he said.

The problem has been exacerbated by the fact that many "vocorocas" are de facto drainage or sewage channels, causing further erosion.

"The city needs major engineering projects to contain the erosion process, and also reforestation at the edges of the 'vocorocas,'" said Carvalho Campos.

But "first and foremost," he said, the city should resettle families living near the craters.

Mayor Joao Carlos Teixeira is promising major drainage and soil-treatment projects.

"The federal government has made clear it is committed to making this area safe," he said.

But local residents are doubtful.

"The authorities have never bothered to do anything about the problem, and now it's come to this," said Isaias Neres, president of a local residents' association.

- 'Just like thunder' -

Standing at the edge of a 60-meter abyss, Maria dos Santos says she is afraid of being inside her own home.

"There was no crater here before. It started recently, less than three years ago," said Dos Santos, 45, standing on a patch of cracked road that has partly collapsed into the gorge.

There is no protective barrier around the crater, one of the biggest in the city, even though children often play nearby.

Dos Santos's meager, mud-walled house is among those at risk of collapsing into the chasm.

Rainstorms make her panic, too, she said.

"We're afraid of dying here... When the collapses happen, it sounds just like thunder," she said.

But she and her family have nowhere else to go, she said.

"We're in God's hands."

(Y.Berger--BBZ)