Two bodies responsible for the mapping of risk areas, prevention and containment of environmental disasters, the municipal civic defenses face a lack of word, personnel and structure. In cases of storms and extreme rain, such as when the Carnival reached the North coast of São Paulo, it is up to the civil defense to alert and assess the population.
The deficit of resources is the main factor for the realization of the work of 67% of the organizations (26% correspond to lack of money; 22% of equipment and 19% of equipment). Based on the questionnaire applied to 1,993 cities that will participate in the Municipal Investigation in Civil Protection and Defense, 72% will respond without their own resources for the area, not counting money from other secretaries or, sometimes, not according to their own prefecture.
These data are in the article Federal Public Funds and Implementation of the National Civil Protection and Defense Policy in Brazil, published in Senate Legislative Information Magazine and assassinated by lawyers Fernanda Damacena and Luiz Felipe da Fonseca Pereira and by researchers Renato Eliseu Costa, PhD in Public Policy at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), and Victor Marchezini, from the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters (Cemaden).
In addition, municipal civil defense agents point to the high turnover of charges as the main factor of setback in disaster risk reduction, combined with precarious working conditions, lack of training and unclear responsibilities in risk management.
Qualification – 63% have two civil servants, hair less, completed higher education – does not guarantee permanence without position – 43% have barely been in the current role for one year and 37% between one and five years, second to the Challenges for professionalism in civil research defense and protection, published in the magazine Disaster Prevention and Management. Some bodies reported that only one or two employees were available for work and, as regards the physical space, 65% of the civil defenses were divided with another secretary.
In the study, the researchers agree that in the absence of definition, two parents involved in risk management compromise governance, reinforcing the importance of professionalizing the area. In response to this point, not last year, the Ministry of Labor included the civil protection and defense agent in the Brazilian Classification of Occupations (CBO), being the first step for the recognition and qualification of the profession.
“The civic defenses are not prepared. In a moment of extreme emergency, such as the one that occurred on the north coast of São Paulo, the municipalities as a whole are also not there. We know that less than 10% of the municipalities plan disaster risk reduction. A civil defense does not make a miracle”, affirms Marchezini, who is currently doing a post-doctoral fellow at the Natural Hazards Center, of the University of Colorado-Boulder (United States), with the support of the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp ).
“It is necessary to have articulation between the secretaries, connecting, for example, urban planning, schools, the health system and strengthening interdepartmental and social participation. There is still the role of States and the federal government, which have the responsibility of providing financial support, training and technical personnel”, he completes.
Working since 2004 in the area of sociology of disasters, as a goal for the involvement of local communities in prevention, Marchezini participated in several surveys linked to the area, among them the coordination of the Elos Project.
Carried out between October 2020 and December 2021 through international technical cooperation between the National Secretariat for Civil Protection and Defense (Sedec) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a research conducted in Cemaden based on a survey of information on The structure and capacities of municipal civis defenses. It resulted in six publications of the Municipal Diagnosis in Civil Protection and Defense, which traced not only a profile of the organizations by regions of Brazil as suggestions for improving the implementation of the National Policy for Civil Protection and Defense (PNPDEC) in the municipalities.
“There is a growing need for the topic of risk management, not only for civil defense. More like all the municipal secretariats that need to have responsibility and commitment for structural and permanent actions, mainly when the territory where they are located fears or could face disaster risks due to urban expansion and more projects of economic growth. It is also necessary to prepare officials and civil society through educational policies and clear communication that help to deal with emergency situations”, completes the researcher.
remember
The storm that struck the North coast between the days of February 18 and 19, leaving 65 dead and nearly 2,000 homeless, was the largest volume of accumulated rain that was recorded in Brazil, second or Cemaden. It formed 683 millimeters in Bertioga in less than 24 hours, surpassing the tragedy of Petrópolis (RJ), in 2022, when it formed 534.4 millimeters in no period.
With 626 millimeters of rain, São Sebastião was the most impacted municipality, with landslides on shorelines, allegations and isolated towns due to the interdiction of access roads. In Ilhabela I had 337 mm in the period, in Ubatuba 335 mm and in Caraguatatuba 234 mm, the latter having been the place of greatest tragedy in the State of São Paulo. In March 1967, the city had a landslide of shorelines caused by rainy days, with hundreds of houses buried, and at least 487 deaths (in the count of the time).
The intensity of the rains during the last Carnival was the result of a combination of humidity, cyclone winds and a cold front stationed in São Sebastião. The effect was aggravated by the ocean temperature (between 27 °C and 28 °C), which was 1°C above average, or by increasing evaporation and cloud formation.
In recent years, Brazil has been registering an increase in extreme events. According to specialists, with a temperature increase of at least 1.1°C in the last decades due to carbon emissions, the trend is that these events are recorded more frequently, potentially causing greater damage if mitigation measures are not taken and adaptation to climatic changes.
Data from the Integrated Disaster Information System reveal that the country counted 28,033 records of decree of emergency situation (SE) and state of public calamity (ECP) between 2013 and the beginning of this year. A major part corresponds to estiagens, droughts and storms.
“In some way it is necessary to associate an environmental protection project to a single-use plan, with housing solutions and offer of dwellings in places without risk, in addition to mitigation, educational and structural measures, including urban drainage, basic sanitation and containment of encostas”, avalia Marchezini.
Attributions
The municipal civic defenses are responsible for risk and disaster management, duties that range from the analysis and monitoring of risk areas, with prevention and mitigation actions, to relief and action in recovery projects. The National System for Civil Protection and Defense (Sinpdec) brings together all the competencies for the management of risks and disasters and must focus on prevention. Its coordination is in charge of Sedec.
In the case of chuvas, Cemaden issues a statement/diagnosis for the national civil defense, which is sent to the state and municipal. The civil defense, in turn, sends messages to the local population advising of the forecast of rains, alagaments and landslides. In some cities, there are sirens installed to alert you.
Generally, among the problems of the communication system is the number of registers not alert, which may be low, and the texts of SMS messages, generic for a region and at the same time for the type of event planned.
In the capacity diagnosis research, 25% two organizations will respond using SMS to communicate the alerts. For other types of communication, 56% will answer using social networks (Facebook, Instagram) and 43% messaging applications (WhatsApp, Telegram).
For Marchezini, both communication and the involvement of the population can be the difference to save lives in disasters. The researcher cites Japan as an example, in 2011, when nearly 3,000 elementary and middle school students in Kamaishi, in the Iwate province, survived the tsunami that hit the region. This was thanks to the rapid evacuation after an earthquake, made possible by two teachers and students.
The researcher also accompanied him, with the support of Fapesp, in the reconstruction of São Luiz do Paraitinga (SP), destroyed in January 2010 due to an overflow of the Paraitinga river. In the municipality, the residents themselves moved quickly to respond to the issue, after which they held public hearings, resulting in the creation of the Centro de Reconstruccião Sustentável de São Luiz do Paraitinga.
Years after the replacement of trees in devastated hills, reducing the flooding of the river, and students of the middle school worked on a map of cliffs to prevent the effects of flooding, described in the article. published in Disaster Prevention and Management magazine.
“In São Luiz, what helped to speed up the reconstruction process was precisely the participation of society through public hearings and the decision of the director to define an area of special social interest. The coastline is now that challenge”, says Marchezini.
Procured, the printing advisory of the Ministry of Regional Integration and Development, to which Sedec is linked, informed that in order to improve the civil defense teams, the Plan for Continuing Training in Protection and Civil Defense was instituted. There are 25 free online courses. Between 2020 and 2023, about 25 thousand certificates were issued.
“It is important to record that we have worked on the awareness of two municipal managers on the importance of systemic action in civil defense, as well as the importance of the municipal body. In this way, we develop training material for managers and hold events, such as the “Bate-Papo com Defesa Civil”, which has among its objectives the approximation with the municipalities, as well as the “Banco de Good Practices”, which shares experiences successful, low cost and replicable”, he informed the assessoria.
The Civil Defense of the State of São Paulo did not respond to the request for information at the time of this report.