2023-10-31 18:11:00
In Quilombo Porto Velho, in Iporanga (SP), the Ribeira de Iguape River reaches banana groves and threatens community production | Osvaldo dos Santos/Quilombo Porto Velho
Municipalities in the São Paulo region of Vale do Ribeira are in a state of attention due to the intense and continuous rains that have been occurring since the state of Paraná and have caused a rapid increase in the flow of the Ribeira de Iguape River, which has been suffering overflows.
In addition to neighborhoods and roads, the quilombola communities of Eldorado and Iporanga are already suffering from flooding. In more critical locations, houses were hit and the population had to retreat to shelters in search of protection.
In the municipality of Ribeira, City Hall declared a state of emergency last Sunday due to flooding and roads closed due to landslides. Iporanga, Eldorado, Itaóca and Apiaí already have impassable sections and are a concern for the population.
In the municipality of Ribeira, City Hall declared a state of emergency last Sunday due to flooding and roads closed due to landslides. Iporanga, Eldorado, Itaóca and Apiaí already have impassable sections and are a concern for the population.
In Iporanga, quilombola communities are isolated, without access to roads or ferries, prevented from traveling due to strong currents. In Quilombo Ivaporunduva, families hurriedly removed their belongings from home to stay at the Community Center. “We need to take these people to a safe place so that they do not have any harm in their lives”, reports the head of the Quilombola Brigade, Gilson de França Furquim, a resident of the community.
Leader of Quilombo Ivaporunduva, Benedito Alves da Silva, known as Ditão, reports that four families in the territory had to leave their homes during the early hours of the morning and were rescued by boat by their neighbors. He also highlights that land access to the community is unfeasible, and that many have lost crops, especially beans.
In Eldorado, the river is three meters above normal level Lower neighborhoods in the municipality of Eldorado face flooding with the flood of the Ribeira de Iguape River. The forecast is for the level to rise even further |Frederico Viegas/ISA
Located in the so-called Baixo Ribeira, the municipality of Eldorado redoubles its attention. The course of the river that bathes the city adds rainfall. Therefore, on Monday morning (10/30) the City Hall issued a statement informing that an increase in the level of the Ribeira de Iguape River in the municipality was still expected, and that it could reach up to 10.3 meters.
The situation is worrying because the overflow point – the measure at which the river overflows – of the Ribeira de Iguape River in Eldorado is six meters above. By early afternoon on Monday, the river had already reached nine meters, according to monitoring by the São Paulo Flood Alert System (Saisp). Therefore, the population living in regions closest to the banks of the river or other lower-lying locations are aware of the possibility of flooding.
Ribeira de Iguape River is three meters above capacity in the municipality of Eldorado (SP) | Screenshot of the São Paulo Flood Alert System (Saisp) at 1:30 pm on Monday (10/30/2023)
Farmer Cícero Honório dos Santos, leader of Quilombo Sapatu, reports that he spent the night between Sunday and Monday on vigil, monitoring the speed of the river rise near his house. “I have a son who is two years and seven months old. So we are worried. I’ve been watching for over 24 hours. The water reached the area, but did not enter the house. Another 30 centimeters it went in. In the morning it dropped about 15 centimeters, but as it should rise again, I vacated part of the house as a precaution.”
Cícero also says that plantations throughout the community were affected, most of them cassava, beans, peach palm and banana plantations. And although they are protecting themselves due to the flood, material losses are occurring. Bananas, for example, may become unfit for sale or, depending on how long they are submerged, the banana plantations may die, losing the entire plantation.
Cícero Honório dos Santos, leader of Quilombo Sapatu, spent the morning monitoring the rise of the river, which was close to entering the house | Cícero dos Santos/Quilombo Sapatu
Lorrayne Silva is a law intern at the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) in Vale do Ribeira. She reports that in her community, Quilombo André Lopes, everyone is very apprehensive, “considering that the flood tends to increase at night and/or early in the morning”. According to her, if the river really exceeds 10 meters, as stated in the report from Eldorado City Hall, everyone in her community will be affected. “In André Lopes, after 9.5 meters you become homeless”, she warns.
Technical advisor to ISA’s Vale do Ribeira Program, Raquel Pasinato reinforces the fear of the region’s population regarding the floods of the Ribeira de Iguape River. “Large floods, in which the Ribeira rises to the point of flooding cities and bordering territories, are greatly feared by the population and happen from time to time, according to local residents. We had the last biggest ones in 1997 and 2011,” she recalls.
Pasinato emphasizes how, in recent years, residents of Vale do Ribeira have faced the consequences of climate extremes and how they have a more severe impact on those in the most fragile conditions to face them.
“When there is a lot of rain, the risk of rain in the headwaters is greater in the summer, but the 2011 flood, for example, happened in August. So there is a probability that climate deregulation is actually changing the volume of rainfall and its timing. And this is a point of attention so that the municipalities that are in the Ribeira de Iguape Basin, and already have a history of these major floods, begin to prepare to welcome the population, but, mainly, to improve the conditions of riparian forests in the Ribeira, which has a large part of its banks occupied by large-scale monoculture banana plantations, for example.”
Although the weather was cold on Monday morning (30), the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) issued a yellow alert for the region until Tuesday (31) due to the forecast of storms. According to the agency’s monitoring, the total volume of rain can reach 50 millimeters (mm) in 24 hours, with winds of up to 60 km/h and hail.
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