Tackling the causes of ill health in Rio's slums

Abstract

An open sewer runs through the centre of Nova Marilia a small community on the edge of the megaurban sprawl of Rio de Janeiro. It is summer in the southern hemisphere and the open-air waste attracts rats and is a breeding ground for pestilence and disease. When it rains the sewage overflows making its way into people’s homes. This is one of the poorest municipalities in the state of Rio and nearly every person in the community is without a job. In one sense the residents of Nova Marilia are lucky: the village has not yet been taken over by the drug gangs that during the past 15 years have spread like a plague through Brazil’s poor communities. Still drugs and violence are already making themselves felt. A few weeks ago two teenagers were gunned down on one of the village’s main roads which like the others in town is unpaved. (excerpt)