Flooding of rivers in RS once again forces families to leave their homes Intense rain once again affected cities in Rio Grande do Sul that developed on the banks of rivers in Rio Grande do Sul, forcing residents to leave their homes. In Lajeado, a municipality with just over 90 thousand inhabitants, more than 700 people had to be evicted after the Taquari River flooded in recent days. For those who live in these areas, their routine is marked by insecurity. "It's a situation that happens every year, we have to leave the house because of the water", reports musician José Casemiro Fernandes Maidana. ? Access the g1 RS channel on WhatsApp Fatigue in the face of losses is reinforced by trader Eliane dos Santos Crispim. "We don't want to cry anymore, we can't bear losing anymore. We're tired", he says. In Porto Alegre, the Islands Region is one of the first places to feel the effects of the rise in the level of the Guaíba. The area is part of the Jacuí Delta floodplain and is naturally occupied by water when the volume in the basin increases. A resident of the neighborhood since she was born, housewife Marinês Maciel reports her anguish with every rise in the river. "We don't get used to it because it's a bad thing. We lose things, we worry, we can't sleep. We always have to be careful, getting up, checking how we are doing. It's difficult", he laments. According to Porto Alegre City Hall, the population on the Islands fell by half after the 2024 flood. Mayor Sebastião Melo (MDB) explains that housing programs help some residents leave. "We had a program in partnership with the federal government where the city hall provided the report, with the state, a R$1,000 voucher until these people acquired the properties. Around 1,800 families have already purchased properties", says Melo. He adds that the objective is to provide Necontinuity to the removals. Need for adaptation For experts, climate change imposes an urgent need for adaptation in city planning. The professor at the Hydraulic Research Institute at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Rodrigo Paiva, defends the inclusion of risk mapping in municipal master plans to avoid new occupations. "The areas that are already occupied, where people already live in these places, we need more other measures, for example, good monitoring of intense rains, river levels, which allows us to make good forecasts and early warnings so that the population can prepare to act during an extreme event", concludes the professor. Given the history of flooding, Lajeado City Hall mapped flood areas and restricted new construction. The vice-mayor, Guilherme Cé (Novo), states that the challenge now is to deal with existing housing. "We are working precisely on planning to look for alternatives in the near future to remove these buildings there and relocate them to other, safer locations", he explains. The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite (PSD), highlights that joint actions are under development. "Several people have already been relocated from other floods and are no longer impacted, but we still have communities that are subjected to this. So, we talked here, the Public Ministry, us, the State Government, City Hall, about the development of projects for these locations", he states. In Porto Alegre, the rise of the Guaíba reached the Islands Region Reproduction/RBS TV VIDEOS: Everything about RS