The devastating and persistent floods in southern Brazil are forcing some of the half-million displaced residents to consider uprooting their lives from flooded cities and rebuilding on higher ground.
Two weeks after the start of heavy rain, the Guaiba River, which flows past the state capital Porto Alegre, is rising again and has passed its highest point ever.
In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the streets of dozens of cities have turned into slow-flowing rivers.
In the area around Porto Alegre alone, where four rivers join to form the Guaiba River, researchers estimate that nearly 3,800 square kilometers were underwater.
That’s more than the urban footprint of the Washington, D.C., metro area, which includes ten counties in two neighboring states.
With hundreds of thousands of families fleeing the floods, the disaster – which has killed at least 147 people, with 127 still missing – could trigger one of the largest cases of climate migration in Brazil in recent history.
Southern Brazil’s location at the confluence of tropical and polar currents has caused periods of increasingly intense drought and rainfall due to climate change, according to scientists.
The record destruction in Rio Grande do Sul follows flooding in the second half of last year, which led many of the 538,000 people now displaced from their homes to consider more extreme adjustments.
For the third time in seven months, businessman Cassiano Baldasso had to remove wheelbarrows of mud from his home in Muçum, a small town 150 km upriver from Porto Alegre, only to see the water rise again. He says he’s had enough.
“I have no idea where I’m going, but it will be somewhere far from the river where our lives won’t be in danger,” Baldasso said as he retrieved another cart of mud from the house.
Mayor Mateus Trojan said many of Muçum’s 5,000 residents will have to move. His office plans to rebuild 40% of the city elsewhere.
Baldasso had already saved his family in September by climbing onto the roof of their two-story house, until they were rescued by firefighters in the middle of the night.
During that flood, just a few blocks away, Maria Marlene Venancio’s home was swept away and she lost everything.
This month, the rental house she had moved to was 1.5 meters deep under water. She fears that it is time to leave Muçum.
“I think one day the city will become a river, and it will be difficult for us to live here. People with money are all leaving,” she said.
Governor Eduardo Leite has said initial calculations show Rio Grande do Sul will need at least 19 billion reais ($3.7 billion) to rebuild after the disaster.
The federal government has offered to freeze 11 billion reais in debt payments for three years.
On the streets of Muçum and other nearby towns, the slowly receding water leaves behind deserted scenes with furniture, clothes and appliances piled up in front of houses.
Maria Ines Silverio has returned to her home, but she keeps her clothes in plastic bags for fear the river will rise again.
She has a 30-year mortgage and says she can’t afford to leave.
“When we bought the house, this was not a flooded area. Now it is, and the river will continue to rise,” she said.
Environmental experts warn that for some cities in the state, there is no alternative other than relocating entire neighborhoods.
“We need to move urban infrastructure away from risky environments and give space back to the rivers… so that they no longer impact cities on such a scale,” said ecologist Marcelo Dutra, a professor at Rio Grande Federal University.
“We cannot resist nature. We must wake up to this force that tells us that we must adapt and respect nature,” he said.
