Poor road maintenance compromises development in rural areas

Brazil has large territorial extensions that are interconnected by unpaved and poorly maintained roads. Data from the Institute of Applied Economic Research indicate that only 1% of the road network is paved in the country. Around 80% of the roads are the responsibility of municipalities and they transport approximately 80% of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in addition to being the only route available for thousands of students who live in rural areas.

A project developed by the Rice Growers Association of Alegrete (RS) shows that in this municipality on the Western Border of Rio Grande do Sul alone, there are 4,87 thousand kilometers of unpaved municipal rural roads. Of this total, the roads with the greatest traffic difficulties are those that include the towns of Caverá, Rincão de São Miguel and those that pass through Inhandui, Guasso Boi, Conceição and Silvestre. During the agricultural harvest period alone, the loss in transportation is around 40%.

Entitled Agrotríplex, the Rice Growers Association project seeks to lift bottlenecks and work towards improvements in three pillars: water, energy and roads. Regarding the transport part, work developed by academic Bruno de Abreu Silveira, from the Agricultural Engineering Course at the Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa), will evaluate water erosion on unpaved rural roads in the Alegrete region. The idea is to quantify soil losses and propose a methodology for a real estimate of what leads to road deterioration. "The problem with roads is not just logistical, but socioeconomic and environmental. The amount of material that is being taken from the roads because it is not compacted is large and goes into the fields and rivers, silting up water resources", states the president of the Association, Fátima Marchezan.

One of the region's rural producers, Gilberto Pilecco, states that the problems with rural roads come from their origins, such as the lack of structuring and standardization. He highlights the existence of poorly sized bridges and culverts and recovery services without criteria and supervision. “The material for repairs is often removed parallel to the roads themselves, forming craters. When it rains, water is retained, causing erosion and compromising electricity grid posts and fences and wires on neighboring rural properties,” explains Pilecco.

The municipality of Alegrete has nine Municipal and two State Educational Centers that are accessed through rural roads. There are, on average, 440 kilometers of roads covered by several school buses around each hub. According to the Municipal Department of Education, 843 students are served in the nine municipal centers, 793 of whom are from Elementary School and 150 from High School. One of them, Conceição, is the Municipal School of Basic Education Murilo Nunes de Oliveira, which serves 263 students from level A of Early Childhood Education to the last year of High School. These students stay there between 9am and 16pm, and for many the journey is long, as is the case for the teachers.

Therefore, Pilecco highlights the importance of improving roads, to also ensure safe transportation for these children and adolescents, especially during periods of heavy rainfall. “At the beginning of this month of June, one of the Jacaraí Polo school buses broke down and the children without any information were left at the bus stops and ended up returning to their homes. Due to poor road conditions, it is very common for buses to break down or get stuck,” he explains.