At the present time, several regions of Brazil are affected by intense rains and floods that have brought deaths and destruction of buildings and infrastructure. Government officials explain the existence of this problem by excessive rainfall or by overflowing rivers trying to avoid the guilt of doing nothing with the adoption of preventive measures. On 07/30/2018, we published on the Academia.edu website the article The engineering deficit in the solution of the floods problem in Brazil. In this article, we affirm “this is an unjustifiable explanation because there are resources of Engineering for a long time that would allow to prevent great rains or overflow of waters in rivers and streams from flooding roads and cities. The problem exists, therefore, not due to the lack of engineering techniques capable of solving it. The problem is one of incompetence or disinterest by governments (federal, state or municipal) in solving the problem. The flooding of roads and cities by rainwater or by the overflow in rivers or streams is inconceivable in the current era”.

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FLOODS IN BRAZIL RESULT FROM THE INCOMPETENCE OF
GOVERNORS AND THE LACK OF ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
Fernando Alcoforado*
At the present time, several regions of Brazil are affected by intense rains and floods that
have brought deaths and destruction of buildings and infrastructure. Government officials
explain the existence of this problem by excessive rainfall or by overflowing rivers trying
to avoid the guilt of doing nothing with the adoption of preventive measures. On
07/30/2018, we published on the Academia.edu website the article The engineering
deficit in the solution of the floods problem in Brazil. In this article, we affirm “this is an
unjustifiable explanation because there are resources of Engineering for a long time that
would allow to prevent great rains or overflow of waters in rivers and streams from
flooding roads and cities. The problem exists, therefore, not due to the lack of engineering
techniques capable of solving it. The problem is one of incompetence or disinterest by
governments (federal, state or municipal) in solving the problem. The flooding of roads
and cities by rainwater or by the overflow in rivers or streams is inconceivable in the
current era”.
Flood control concerns all engineering methods used to reduce or prevent the harmful
effects of rainwater and river floods. Some methods of flood control have been practiced
since Antiquity. These methods include planting vegetation to retain excess water,
sloping terraces to decrease the slope flow and building alluviums (man-made channels
to divert floodwater), building dikes, dams, reservoirs or holding tanks to store extra water
during flood periods. Some of the common techniques used for flood control are also the
installation of rock shoulders that hold loose blocks and assist in drainage, rock ripraps
composed of compacted rock blocks, sandbags, maintenance of normal slopes with
vegetation or application of soil cement on steeper slopes, concrete curtains and
construction or expansion of drainage channels. Other methods include dikes, dams or
detention basins.
The engineering works that can prevent and mitigate the effects of floods are as follows:
1) On highways, the implantation of steel pipes should take water by gravity away from
the road from catchment basins; 2) The serious flooding problems in a city that has paved
a large part of its soil would be partly alleviated by the construction of swimming pools,
in fact large underground water tanks to store the water underground; 3) Mandatory
placement of permeable draining floors in the huge parking lots of shopping malls,
supermarkets and cinemas to allow water to infiltrate part of the ground, the same for
monuments and spaces around buildings; 4) Use of drains and channels around all houses
to divert rainwater to a reservoir or disposal area out of danger of flooding; 5)
Maintenance, whenever possible, of some green areas so that the water is reabsorbed by
the soil; 6) Rectification of rivers and streams, construction of dams and channels in the
large rivers that overflow their containment basins; and, 7) Implementation of a civil
defense system that should be able to at least warn people and have a scheme to remove
them from homes in time with some belongings and house them.
The precautions to avoid flooding in constructed buildings are as follows: 1) keep streets
and sidewalks always clean; 2) cleaning and unblocking manholes and wolf mouths; 3)
keep gutters and other rain flow channels in the houses free of branches and leaves of
trees to avoid clogging and, consequently, water return; 4) placing garbage bags on the

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sidewalks only around the time the garbage collection truck will pass, preventing them
from being dragged to the sewer networks when it rains heavily; 5) have a drain pump at
hand if flooding cannot be avoided; and, 6) use Dutch and British flood-proof technology
as a floating amphibious house that allows the building to float in the same way as a boat.
In summary, hydrology experts recommend, to avoid flooding, the adoption of the
following measures: 1) Combating erosion with reduction to the maximum extent the
silting up of natural and constructed drainages through rigorous and extensive combating
soil erosion, as well as irregular dumping of urban waste and civil construction debris, as
well as the expansion of river channels; 2) Combating waterproofing with the creation of
domestic and business reservoirs, as well as the expansion of green areas; 3) Prohibition
of traffic on high-traffic avenues when nearby rivers overflow; 4) Implementation of lanes
of avenues covered by vegetation that, in cases of overflow of rivers or streams, the water
would be absorbed by the pavement-free soil; 5) Construction of swimming pools to
receive rainwater and mini swimming pools in houses and buildings; 6) Invest in the
preparation of small and large streams in the urban center to support the increase in water
and act as containment barriers; 7) Review of occupied areas with continuous planning
and spatial planning action; and, 8) Action and planning with the elaboration of a plan to
face the occurrence of floods as well as extreme climatic variations and the construction
of reservoirs capable of storing billions of cubic meters of water and their use for non-
potable purposes.
In many countries, flood prone rivers are often carefully managed. Defenses such as
dikes, reservoirs and dams are used to prevent rivers from overflowing. A dike is one of
the methods of protection against flooding. A dike reduces the risk of flooding compared
to other methods. It can help prevent damage. However, it is best to combine levees with
other flood control methods to reduce the risk of a collapsed levee. When these defenses
fail, emergency measures, such as sandbags or portable inflatable tubes, are used. Coastal
floods have been controlled in Europe and North America with defenses such as ocean
walls or barrier islands that are narrow, long strips of sand usually parallel to the coastline.
In the world, the Netherlands excels in flood prevention with an efficient defense system
composed of flood control techniques developed since the Middle Ages and futuristic
steel structures operated by computers, which move to control the floods caused by the
increase in the water level after storms.
Dutch cities have reinvented themselves as centers of environmental ingenuity. It was the
first country to adopt the construction of facilities such as parking lots that become
emergency reservoirs. It installed squares, gardens and basketball courts in poor
neighborhoods that also function as retention ponds. For the Dutch, a smart city must
have a comprehensive and holistic vision that goes far beyond dikes and floodgates. The
challenge of adapting to the climate includes security, sanitation, housing, roads, and
emergency services. From the above, it can be said that there is engineering solutions to
the flooding problems on highways and large Brazilian cities. Technical solutions exist
to avoid the damage caused by flooding on the highways and on the population of large
cities, especially the poor populations who systematically lose their assets when they face
floods. The Brazilian population needs to hold the authorities responsible for the
negligence in solving the flood problems and to stop believing that the floods are the fault
of nature.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 80, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System,
member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional

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Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of
strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the
books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem
Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os
condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo
e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As
Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro
para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).