Avaliação das condições sanitárias e suas correlações com a sustentabilidade ambiental na Comunidade Rio das Pedras/RJ, terceiro maior aglomerado urbano subnormal do Brasil

Abstract

The pressures between slum areas and the environment raises multiple questions for large Brazilian cities, such as the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, making some issues more evident, especially in the relationship between the living population and surface water, emphasized in the context of the subnormal settlements in a situation of environmental vulnerability (ASSVA) and advances in local environmental degradation. Whether these pressures come from disorderly urban growth, lack of sanitation and adequate urban planning, or the effects of disasters related to climate events. Thus, there are still several gaps in terms of health information, necessary both for linking indicators and for improving more realistic environmental analyzes in areas popularly called slums. Therefore, it is urgent to analyze the health conditions of the ASSVA, as well as the perception of the local population about their living conditions. This study was divided into two fundamental stages, with the objective of the first stage, to evaluate, through an online form and public data, the population's perception of the sanitary conditions of the third largest slum in Brazil, the Rio das Pedras community, located on the shores of the Jacarepaguá lagoon complex (Rio de Janeiro-RJ). Chosen for having typical characteristics of Brazilian slums, such as: being flat, with a high population density and located on the banks of a body of water. The analyzes revealed that of the 279 respondents: 99 % have access to an adequate bathroom; however 35 % admit to releasing their domestic effluent (sewage) directly into the river (or lagoon); 83 % of participants improperly dispose of solid urban waste (SUW); 22 % confirm having fallen ill due to direct contact with inappropriate water, after flooding events. Inserting the local problem into the global context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), for the second stage an international approach was adopted, with the objective of analyzing how slum regions interact with SDG-6 (water and sanitation), based on the interpretation of a Bayesian Network of possible interconnections between different SDG targets, exposing the correlations that permeate the points between sanitation and populations in slums, demonstrating how this vision can assist in understanding and mitigating vulnerabilities, especially those related to the insecurity of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Alternative approaches to data analysis are practices encouraged by the literature and international frameworks, whether on a local, national or even global scale. So, they should be envisaged by public managers for further advances in sustainability agendas, collaborating to mitigate risks to environmental health.