Every year, the rainy summer months bring a wave of media coverage detailing the devastating effects of floods on the lives of citizens and the urban territory of São Paulo. It is as if, during this period, public discourse platforms become a stage for reporting chaos and seemingly insurmountable challenges that urban centers must face in their daily relationship with water.
This week, the city of São Paulo experienced just such a scenario, with a deluge of images showing flooded streets, landslides, and people losing their belongings and livelihoods, all within a very short span of time. Naturally, the immediate focus shifts to environmental concerns and the maintenance of a stable relationship between city and nature—one that has been severely compromised in recent years by ecological imbalances resulting from decades of extensive natural resource exploitation and irresponsible land occupation. Yet, despite the clear link between these immediate events and the broader context, we must confront the city's flooding not only as an environmental and technical issue but also as a political and social one, deeply tied to how urbanization projects unfolded across the city's fabric during its formative historical period, leading to today's consequences.
