Spatial Water Management in Paraisópolis

Abstract

The problems in Paraisópolis are numerous, but these are the main problems concerning water and waste. São Paulo has a climate with a wet and a dry season. During the wet season, floods occur throughout the city, including Paraisópolis. But in the dry season, the entire city suffers from drought. This drought has intensified over the last years, because of climate change: the wet season has shortened and less rain falls each year. Because Paraisópolis is an informal neighbourhood, infrastructure is not regulated as it is in the rest of the city. Most houses are connected to the water grid, but not all connections are legal and safe. Likewise, not all houses are connected to the sewerage. Many connections are home-made and there’s also open sewerage, running through some streets, only covered with a grid. Also, solid waste is not always collected and the open sewerage is getting clogged with this solid waste. These various problems interfere with each other. Because of the open sewerage, during flooding, waste material from lavatories is taken up and washed into the streets. Because of the street pattern and the height differences in the neighbourhood, this can effect a large area. This web of problems leads to this hypothesis: creating new public space with specific qualities will create the space required to address the problems of water and waste in Paraisópolis. These qualities must be found through Urban Metabolism and theory regarding the connectivity to the formal city. Possibilities to create extra improvements for the neighbourhood via the new public spaces should not be ignored. To address both the physical and social situation of Paraisópolis, a plan needs to be made, consisting of a design and a process: a spatial strategy.