O lago virou canal: desigualdade ambiental nas entrelinhas do saneamento básico em uma baixada de Belém

Abstract

This paper analyzes the reproduction of environmental inequalities through the impacts of precarious basic sanitation services on the perimeter of Lago Verde, a tributary of the Tucunduba River in the Terra Firme district of Belém, Pará. This relationship is justified by the recognition that certain sections of the population, allocated to specific areas such as the lowlands of Belém, have no guarantee of equitable access to the resources and policies that are fundamental to life in the city. The research used a methodological approach to the problem based on a predominantly qualitative approach, employing the techniques of bibliographical research, field research and the application of interviews with semi-structured scripts, collection and analysis of secondary data, such as statistical data on sanitation collected from official data platforms, research institutions and municipal bodies in Belém, as well as census analysis of the neighborhood based on data from the IBGE Automatic Retrieval System (SIDRA) statistical database and documentary research in journalistic sources. The theoretical analysis is based on the category of environmental inequality (Acselrad, Mello and Bezerra, 2009) articulated with the theme of basic sanitation as a public policy to promote well-being (Rezende, Heller, 2008; Souza et al, 2015). The category of environmental inequality represents a synthesis between social and environmental inequality, going beyond differences of income and class by broadening the sociological view of the environment. The perspectives elaborated on sanitation influence ways of appropriating the city, guiding practices, temporalities and impacting the subjective spheres of individuals in two distinct moments. The first is the absence and/or precariousness of services. This can be seen in the financial security of the residents interviewed, which is compromised by works and adjustments to their homes after flooding, in the disruption of activities and habits that they maintained in their daily lives due to public works interventions, and the distress and concern in managing their homes, which represent their dreams and achievements, symbolized in their own homes. A second moment is the spatialization of the state in the lowlands, where aspects of political participation were triggered by the Tucunduba Pro Lago Verde socio-environmental movement. A legitimate social critique was made of the way in which the interventionist actions were implemented. The concerns and afflictions that make up the daily lives of the residents of the Lago Verde community alter their relationship with the neighborhood, as well as their way of being in the city. A social process of sanitation is mobilized that attests to and stands against the sustaining and reproduction of social and environmental inequalities.