The state of Pernambuco and 4 other states in the northeastern region of Brazil have been devastated by heavy rains since the beginning of this week. Some municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Recife, as well as some municipalities of the Zona da Mata were extremely affected, mainly the populations living in poverty, victims of the environmental racism that divides the territory leaving the most dangerous areas for black and non-white populations.
main photo: Delhi’s land pooling policy is aimed at meeting its growing housing demand by providing about 17 lakh dwelling units in 95 urban villages located in the city’s urbanised extension. (Representational)
The current Covid 19 pandemic is likely to spread in the next few weeks and months to the South and in particular South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. The impact may well be of a greater scale than that currently experienced in the North; India was the region with the highest loss of live in the 1918-1919 Spanish flu Pandemic. The experience and historical experience suggests that urban areas will be disproportionately affected.
The spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and other countries in the region has again brought to the fore the fact that very dense, under-serviced, mostly informal, settlements are not healthy places to live. They are also places where the spread of a disease is difficult to prevent or manage.
The kind of emergency response that was required to address the imminent spread of COVID-19 highlighted the widespread vulnerability of the poorest, compounded by highly unequal access to services and ongoing unhealthy living conditions.
The Latin American and Caribbean Urban CSO Cluster, part of the Global Land Tools Network (GTLN), together with Habitat for Humanity’s Solid Ground Campaign and the Land Portal Foundation, launched an online debate on Urban Land Conflicts in Latin America and the Caribbean in January 2017. Responding to the common interest to make information easy to access and flow to boost collaboration among stakeholders as a critical basis to improve land governance.
