Brazil’s expanding favelas strain infrastructure and climate resilience

As Brazilians prepare to vote on Sunday in the second round of the presidential election, living conditions in the country’s favelas remain a major concern, with many residents lacking basic sanitation. Over the past four decades, the area occupied by favelas has nearly tripled, reaching approximately 460,000 hectares, compared with 53,700 hectares in 1985.

The expansion is particularly visible in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Manaus and Belém, where these neighbourhoods continue to encroach on surrounding urban space each year, worsening infrastructure pressures and increasing climate-related risks.

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