Dozens of deaths have been confirmed for more than 600 people missing

Dozens of deaths have been confirmed for more than 600 people missing, more than 115 000 displaced and entire towns were virtually destroyed by the storms that have fallen on the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco. They lack food, water and energy in some regions and communications are insecure. The government released $ 100 million for reconstruction work. A portion of $ 50 million is already available and the other half, for the rehabilitation of infrastructure, it will take a month or more to be used? a lot of time in such a situation? because of bureaucracy. After the catastrophic effects of landslides on the slopes in Rio, the floods in Sao Paulo and Santa Catarina, which is asked is what government has done in the field of prevention?

Too little, too selectively. The federal government's lavish spending, but not in this case? only spent 14% (U.S. $ 70.4 million) of U.S. $ 508.3 million budgeted for "disaster prevention". As informs the portal accounts, the state of Alagoas, the hardest hit by floods, has not received a penny from the federal government for prevention in 2010. Pernambuco had a bit more lucky. Were you transferred £ 172,200, or 1% of specific allocations of the Ministry of National Integration. The total released, Bahia received 57% (U.S. $ 40.1 million). Not by coincidence, the head of the Ministry until April was Geddel Vieira Lima (PMDB), now a candidate for governor of that state.

In an audit carried out previously, TCU had already observed the encouragement to Bahia during the administration of the Ministry Vieira Lima. As you will recall, President Lula took her pains, refusing peremptorily any unfair advantage. The numbers, however, speak for themselves. True, Alagoas was endowed with $ 3.8 million from the federal government in 2010 "for the actions of emergency assistance and assistance to people affected by disasters," but it's money on the rains of 2009. This, however, only 1% of the amount passed through this program throughout the country (R $ 542.6 million). Pernambuco was awarded £ 19.8 million, no more than 4% of the total.

The state of Rio has suffered much from floods and landslides in April this year and it is understandable that it has received 22% (U.S. $ 118.3 million) of funds allocated for this purpose. Now with the release of new features, Alagoas and Pernambuco are also increasing their participation. The government acts after the door had been broken into. It is clear that the management of resources for prevention is dictated by party political interests.

We must, once and for all, ending the erratic management of funds by central government in those cases in which political interference could compromise the lives of thousands of people. At the same time, Brazil needs to develop ways to prevent disasters and, often, they go beyond the estimates, it is essential to create tools to enable rapid and effective action to assist the populations afflicted by scourges. Brazil always subject to accidents in different climatic regions in any season. The heavy rains that fell on the two states in the Northeast may have been anomalous, may have resulted from the La Nina effect, but surely this was not the first time it occurred.

As the coaches have stressed, there are few studies to guide the preservation of riparian and supervision to prevent the illegal occupation of riverbanks. And as the storms this year have shown so dramatically, we can not allow the construction of housing in areas of known risk.

All this requires that the money available is not used to distribute political spoils and there is provision to win an intractable bureaucracy. It's time for the government to enforce the rules of use and occupation and have a civil defense that effectively prevent natural disasters and be able to provide immediate relief to their victims.

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