Brazil: Natural disasters hit 93% of municipalities in last 10 years

RIO DE JANEIRO. KAZINFORM - Between 2013 and 2022, natural disasters, including storms, floods, flash floods, and waterlogging, have impacted 93 percent of Brazilian municipalities, affecting a total of 5,199 out of 5,570 municipalities. Over 4.2 million people were forced to evacuate their homes, according to data from the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), Kazinform cites Agencia Brasil.

The study reveals that more than 2.2 million homes were damaged in 4,334 municipalities, with 107,413 of them completely destroyed, accounting for 78 percent of the total affected areas.

«The damage to housing over the ten-year period amounted to over BRL 26 billion, leaving municipalities practically alone to aid their populations. There has been no support for prevention and no investments in disaster management,» stated CNM head Paulo Ziulkoski.

The year 2022 marked the worst figures, with a total of 371,172 dwellings damaged or destroyed. Previously, 2015 held the most unfavorable records, with 325,445 homes affected. From a financial perspective, the combined losses during 2020 to 2022 accounted for 70 percent of the total losses, amounting to BRL 18.3 billion.

Housing investment

The CNM study emphasizes that with better urban management, housing policies, and disaster risk prevention measures, the social and economic impacts of these disasters could have been mitigated. There has been a significant lack of federal investment in civil protection and defense during the past decade, leading to decreased new housing contracts through federal programs like Minha Casa, Minha Vida, which supports low-income housing projects.