ENBE VIRTUAL VISIT - FAVELAS, RIO DE JANEIRO

THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT TO THE COMMUNITY

Ensuring The Safety Of The Community

The importance of built environment on the community are, built environment helps to ensure the safety of the community. The community in Rochinha are living in fear due to the drug-trafficking gang known as The Red Command. They are very influential in the neighbourhood as they control some areas in the neighbourhood. This causes the act of violence in the neighbourhood to increase. The government has done very little to improve the standard of living of the community, especially in the security aspect. Instead, the government build cable cars which is to attract tourists to visit the place, not for the benefit of the local. This is due to the high corruption in the government which leads to the abandonment of the community are on average. This also can be improved by developing more police to secure the safety of the neighbourhood and its community.

Providing Proper Sanitation

Secondly, the importance of built environment to the community are, built environment helps to provide proper sanitation to the community. Most of the houses build without a proper planning which meant that the sewage and drainage system are in a mess. This can cause diseases which will affect the health of the local community. For example, stagnant water will become a place for mosquitoes to breed which in turn will cause a rise in malaria cases among the locals. Besides that, proper drainage can avoid flooding from happening especially in the rainy season. The government should ensure that the community is equipped with proper sanitation and drainage system to prevent any diseases or disasters from happening in the neighbourhood which if ignored, will effect not only the local community, but also the whole region.

To Ensure A Healthy Community

As a continuation of the points above, the importance of the built environment to the community is that the built environment can ensure a healthy community. Healthy from the perspective of mental health. The houses in the Rocinha community are built either on top of each other or squeezing among them. This shows that the sizes of the houses are very small in size and the condition of living will be difficult. according to statistics, the number of households in Brazil in the year 2021 to 2019 shows an increasing pattern. This supports the theory that a huge family is living in a small and limited space house with poor sanitary and drainage systems. Small space, came with a huge problem, especially to mental health. Crowded space is like our mind is being in a limited state. The limited space can cause depression. This significantly impacts the mental health not only of an individual but the whole community of Rocinha. The government should plan out a proper housing system, which by building a standard size living space for the community to ensure better mental health for the community.