Court orders Porto Alegre to pay R$1.2 billion for damages from the 2024 flood

According to the sentence, handed down last Friday (25), there was a specific omission by the municipal public authorities in adopting the necessary measures to avoid or minimize the effects of the flood. The Court found that the administration failed to manage and maintain the flood protection system.

According to the Public Ministry of RS, in addition to not adequately maintaining the flood defense structure, the municipality allowed the advancement of urban occupation in areas protected by the system. The understanding is that the expansion of neighborhoods in these regions occurred under the expectation that dikes, floodgates and pumping stations would guarantee safety for the population in the face of floods.

According to the agency, the problems in the system were known to the municipal administration before the 2024 flood.

Another point analyzed by the Court was the allegation of force majeure, presented by the municipality. The argument was rejected. For magistrate Mauro Evely Vieira de Borba, the possibility of flooding caused by Guaíba was predictable, precisely because the city has had a system created for decades to contain or reduce the impacts of this type of event.

The resources must be allocated to the Fund for the Reconstitution of Injured Assets of the State of Rio Grande do Sul or to a specific fund that can be created by the parties. According to the decision, the money must be applied exclusively to climate adaptation actions in the Capital.

Among the planned measures are the implementation of linear parks, river parks, rain gardens and ecological corridors, in addition to other interventions that may be defined during the sentence compliance phase.

The use of resources must be monitored by the State Audit Court (TCE) and the Municipal Council for Urban and Environmental Development of Porto Alegre.

In addition to collective compensation, the Court recognized the right to compensation for individual material and moral damages suffered by residents, professionals and businesspeople who live in areas covered by the Porto Alegre Flood Protection System and who have been proven to have been affected by the flood.

The amount to be received by each person was not fixed in the sentence. Individual compensation must be defined later, in individual or collective enforcement processes, upon proof of the losses suffered by each beneficiary.