Social inequality and the policies of water in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, Brazil: a study of urban environmental politics through a case study of the Guarapiranga reservoir recovery program

This research examines the politics that shape the urban environment in Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area. In particular, it inquires into the potential of international agencies as significant players in major infrastructure projects. It discusses a World Bank project for environment recovery of the Guarapiranga Reservoir, the second largest water supplier of the metropolitan area. This study demonstrates that social inequalities ingrained within developing societies are incorporated into urban politics, creating the physical dimension of social exclusion so prevalent in developing cities. In Sao Paulo, industrialization was associated with urban growth and worsening of environmental conditions. However, all of the metropolitan population did not equally share these conditions. It is the poor who have the burden of living in the midst of pollution and in risky areas, subject to flooding and sliding. This situation is more acute around the Guarapiranga reservoir, where outdated legislation to protect water sources made the low value of land attractive to low-income populations. It was there that the poor found a place for the only housing arrangements they could afford: illegal settlements and favelas, without adequate infrastructure or basic services. The role played by the World Bank was expected to alter this long-standing situation by addressing the roots of the physical exclusion of the urban poor. However, in spite of improvements in living conditions of some settlements around the reservoir, the World Bank Program has largely failed. The Program did not shift region's planning focus from technical goals to a broader and holistic approach that could address social inequalities as well as the environment degradation associated with poor neighborhoods in sensitive areas.Applied Science, Faculty ofCommunity and Regional Planning (SCARP), School ofGraduat