The song "Cidade Lagoa," by Sebastião Fonseca and Cícero Nunes and immortalized in the voice of Kid Morengueira, is a poetic reflection on Rio de Janeiro, particularly on the floods and flooding that frequently plague the city. The flooding, which marked the city's daily life throughout the 20th century, has its roots in an urbanization driven by a hygienist and market-oriented logic, geared toward the speculation of housing as a commodity. The result is the most common narrative of inadequate infrastructure and occupation of risk areas. But it's worth remembering that none of this is a lack of planning or ordering -- on the contrary, it is planning and ordering itself, only guided by a logic that is not aimed at living well, but rather at the differential income of real estate. It is about the real estate market, not about living well, that the city, as a commodity, evolves. These factors, combined with heavy rains, resulted in catastrophic flooding, which especially affected the city's most vulnerable regions. To call it "disorderly" since Kid Morengueira's time is the foundation of the cynicism of contemporary discourse.
In the early 20th century, Rio de Janeiro underwent an accelerated urbanization process. The city, then the capital of Brazil, saw rapid growth full of landfills and channeling works, from the projects of the DNOS (National Department of Public Works and Sanitation) to the Pereira Passos reform, with a large part of the population being pushed to the periphery and, continuing their vulnerabilities, settling in risk areas, such as the hillsides and low-lying zones. These bodies of water, besides being channeled into straight lines, came to be fed by surface flows (faster ones), given the increasing waterproofing of the soil by asphalt and cement. In doing so, we created a historical trap, worsening the risk of flooding during heavy rains.
Floods occur in the lowlands surrounding the massifs, which receive the hydrological discharges from their slopes. The straightening of river channels only speeds up the arrival of these flows to the city's low-lying areas, along with the flows generated by excessive paving. Sometimes flood events are accompanied by landslides, and the flow comes loaded with debris, including rock blocks and tree trunks. The result is already known to residents who have their homes flooded and belongings lost, or, worse, become victims themselves.
Praça da Bandeira, as the song says, is a recurring site of flooding, dating back to the distant times of the city's construction. Built over the wetlands, marshes, and mangroves on the edge of an old arm of the sea that stretched from Gamboa to the mouths of the great rivers of the Zona Norte, the area was always marked by its hydrological function as a flood zone. There stood the mouths of the Maracanã, Joana, Trapicheiros, and Comprido Rivers, along with the drainage flows coming from Catumbi, forming a large mangrove swamp known as Saco de São Diogo. Indeed, it was an area where drainage converged into a flooded system, which, according to the urban planning and hygienist views of the time, was seen as a source of foul odor, blamed for breeding disease and mosquitoes, as well as for hindering the city's growth. Starting in imperial times, the Baron of Mauá began construction of the Canal do Mangue, and later, already under the republic, then-mayor Pereira Passos completed the landfilling of Saco de São Diogo and expanded it to Saco de São Cristóvão. Sea turned into city. There is no reason to doubt that the floods would continue. Even though the engineering of the time correctly predicted the flow calculations, and the width and depth of the canals, what it failed to foresee was the paving over of the rest of the upstream drainage basin. The expansion of the neighborhoods of Tijuca, Maracanã, Vila Isabel, Grajaú, Andaraí, Cidade Nova, and Catumbi was marked by the sealing of the soil in the lowlands and hillsides, turning them into major sources of surface runoff during rainfall. Surface runoff, among all the hydrological flows generated during a rain event, is the fastest of all, flowing freely across the surface toward points of confluence. The result is that increasingly smaller rains cause bigger floods. Lately, some mayors have taken advantage of the climate change narrative to obscure responsibility and claim that the flooding is caused by events that never occurred before. In fact, the rains are the same or, as mentioned, sometimes even lighter, yet causing more flooding.
In this large paved area, other flooding spots are no exception. Starting almost at the headwaters of the Maracanã River, right at its first contact with the valley bottoms, in the Usina neighborhood, the part of the Borel community located on the river's floodplain suffers from its overflows. The narrowing caused by buildings encroaching on the river's floodway ensures that they are hit during the heaviest rain events. Just downstream, in the channeled area already close to Saenz Peña, the central floodplain of the Maracanã River was a hotspot for many floods until the construction of the Praça Varnhagen detention basin. The same kind of project was carried out in Praça da Bandeira itself, in order to store floodwater flows, preventing or reducing the affected areas.
The lowlands of the Pavuna River, densely occupied across extensive plains, also present several flood-prone spots, which, combined with the lack of sanitary sewage, turn flooding events into a true spread of waterborne diseases. The same happens with its tributaries, Irajá and Acari, which, subsumed into the densely occupied landscape in the form of open sewage channels, reclaim their larger riverbeds whenever heavy rains occur. The neighborhoods of Acari, Fazenda Botafogo, Anchieta, Pavuna, and Irajá are always the hardest hit.
In the South Zone, another classic flooding spot is the old marshland area at the foot of the Serra da Carioca, where the Rio dos Macacos and the Rio Rainha flow down, in the neighborhoods of Jardim Botânico and Gávea, respectively. The immense landfill of the Jockey Clube do Brasil, with its long wall, guarantees the flooding of Rua Jardim Botânico and Praça Santos Dumont. In Botafogo, the Bengo and Banana Podre Rivers, buried under the asphalt in culverts that cannot handle the rainwater flow, likewise guarantee the neighborhood's floods on Rua Voluntários da Pátria and Rua São Clemente. In Catete, due to its condition as another filled-in lowland, the neighborhood's main street, Rua do Catete, is frequently flooded, causing trouble for drivers, shopkeepers, and residents.
Heading toward the West Zone, the lowlands expand, and along with them, urbanization paves over more flood-prone areas. The problem worsens as the asphalt layer and landfills take over pre-existing environments. The neighborhoods of Jacarepaguá, Vargens, Realengo, Bangu, Campo Grande, Guaratiba, and Santa Cruz are frequently the stage for the largest contemporary flooding events in Rio. The Jacarepaguá region has several lagoons and marshy areas, which, with soil sealing, have become increasingly prone to flooding. The region's drainage has never been efficient enough to withstand increased urbanization, and heavy rains have caused major flooding since the 1990s.
The recent expansion of the neighborhoods of Guaratiba, especially the already classic case of Jardim Maravilha, expresses the pattern of harmful and costly urbanization that haunts the city model we have built. A vast area in the lower course of the Cabuçu-Piraquê River, with hydromorphic soils, was chosen as the frontier for residential expansion in the West Zone, creating a risk situation that is, today, difficult to resolve. This recurring problem culminated in 2019 with the Flooding Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI), set up in the City Council. According to the report, the provision of disaster-prevention services reveals a clear pattern of inequality among the city's territories. The entire extensive area surrounding the Maciço da Pedra Branca — a fundamental part of the watershed connected to Sepetiba Bay — was completely disregarded by the alert and alarm systems. When it comes to sanitation, the contrast is stark: in AP-5, which covers neighborhoods such as Bangu, Realengo, Campo Grande, Guaratiba, and Santa Cruz, only 33.28% of sewage is actually collected and treated, revealing the structural precariousness that persists in this part of the city.
Although Rio de Janeiro has invested in some improvements to drainage infrastructure in recent decades, flooding remains a recurring problem. Occupation under the current model and soil sealing remain constant challenges for the municipality. As in Kid Morengueira's song, the city sometimes seems to be a "lagoon" where the waters, instead of being controlled, take over the streets and change people's lives. The memory of these floods remains alive in the affected communities, a reminder of the urgent need for more responsible, citizen-oriented urban planning.
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a flooded street. On the left, we see people walking through the water, some with cars stopped. In the center, there are vehicles attempting to cross the water, while on the right, a large steel-framed building is under construction. In the background, we see more buildings and trees along the street. At the bottom of the image, there is an inscription that reads "P. BRANQUIRA" and "ARQUIVO GERAL."Praça da Bandeira in 1940 Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro (AGCRJ).
Image description: This is a photograph of a flooded street during heavy rain. On the left, there is a green wall with a metal fence. Three people are standing near it, looking at the water. The person in the middle wears a white t-shirt and brown pants, while the person on the right wears a black t-shirt and black shorts. On the right, there are parked cars on the street, including a white bus and a black car. The ground is completely submerged in water, which has a reddish tint. At the top of the image, there are advertising signs mounted on the light poles.2019 Flood in the Jardim Botânico Neighborhood https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/heavy-rains-cause-deadly-floods-in-rio-de-janeiro
Image description: This is a color photograph of an area affected by a landslide in February 1996. On the left, we see a flooded street with brown water, where several people are walking or watching. On the right, there are railway tunnels partially covered by mud and rocks. In the center, a large crowd of people is gathered near the tunnels, some appearing to be helping with rescue operations. At the top of the image, we see residential buildings and trees. The photo was taken by Marcia Foletto and published by Agência O Globo.Zuzu Angel Tunnels closed due to landslides in February 1996, Photo Marcia Foletto / Agência O GLOBO
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph showing a flood scene. On the left side, we see a building partially submerged in water. In the center, a group of people is on a boat, using umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain. The men are rowing and helping one another. On the right, more people are in the water, observing the situation. The boat is surrounded by water up to knee height.1966 flood in the surroundings of Jardim Botânico, Rede Globo collection. https://tvhistoria.com.br/como-enchente-rio-mudou-historia-rede-globo/
Image description: The image is an aerial photograph of a flooded residential area. On the left, there is a body of water, while the center and right show flooded streets and houses. The houses are arranged in rows, with some green areas between them. The sky is cloudy, and the text in the image indicates that Jardim Maravilha flooded again.Frame from RJ TV's aerial footage of the flooding in Jardim Maravilha, Guaratiba, May 2022
