Justiça ambiental: análise de indicadores de saneamento básico e socioeconômicos para estudo de caso de desigualdade ambiental na cidade de Londrina - Paraná

Abstract

The environmental crisis developing in global scale gives us the false idea of a phenomenon that affects all places and all people indiscriminately. However, it is possible to notice that environmental damage caused by development largely concentrates in areas where the less affluent population inhabit. The major burden of environmental impacts from human activities falls on marginalized and vulnerable social groups, thus occurring the Environmental Injustice. The attempt to ensure that no social group, be it ethnic, racial or class, shoulder a disproportionate share of the consequent negative environmental effects of economic activities and policy decisions that we name Environmental Justice. This essay is an analysis of Environmental Justice in six neighborhoods located in the city of Londrina (Bandeirantes, Califórnia, Inglaterra, Interlagos, Olímpico e Tucanos) through an assessment of their socioeconomic characteristics along with the conditions of environmental quality. Socioeconomically disadvantaged populations lack basic sanitation infrastructure such as: supply of piped water, the collection and treatment of sewage, the disposal of solid urban waste, selective collection of recyclable solid urban waste and urban drainage - these sanitation conditions were selected as indicators of environmental quality since its mismanagement entails environmental damage. Were analyzed socioeconomic indicators as: the distribution of male and female population, the monthly nominal income by minimum wage by sex and; the literacy rate. Socioeconomic differences were observed between neighborhoods, but the data on the conditions of urban drainage and on water supply and sewage treatment were not obtained, also the indicators on the management of solid urban waste showed no occurrence of environmental injustice; thus the work proved to be inconclusive due to the absence of complete information on basic sanitation.