92575
Improving the Lives of the Urban Poor in Ceará State                                           December 13, 2005
Ceará Urban Development and Water Resources Management Project - PROURB

During the 1980s, Ceará State’s urban population       Financing
grew by 3.6% a year, exceeding both the regional
and national averages. Fortaleza was the second        Total cost : $240 million
fastest growing metropolitan area in Brazil between    IBRD loan amount: $140 million
1980 and 1991, when the population reached 2.3
                                                       Other sources of funding:
million. Much of the growth resulted from migration    State of Ceará, CAGECE/COELCE (State
of low-income families from rural areas to the         Water and Electricity Companies),
outskirts of the city.                                 COGERGH (Water Resources Management
                                                       Company), and Municipalities
As a result of population growth and other factors,
Fortaleza and other urban areas in Ceará were          Implementing agency
faced with increasingly serious environmental
                                                       State of Ceará Secretariat for Urban
problems, including water and air pollution, poor      Development
drainage, and inadequate solid waste disposal.
Low-income populations living in informal              More details
settlements in flood-prone areas and/or areas with
                                                        Full project information & documents
poor sanitation services and housing were
particularly vulnerable to these problems. More than
a third of all housing units in Ceará were not
connected to a piped water system, while more
than half had inadequate sewage and solid waste
disposal.

The Ceará Urban Development and Water
Resources Management Project sought to:

      Build local government management and
      institutional capacity;

      Improve living conditions in selected poor
      urban neighborhoods through infrastructure
      investments;

      Increase efficiency of water use through
      water basin planning and management; and

      Provide reliable, economic and safe water
      supply to communities in critical need
      through investments in water storage,
      conveyance and distribution infrastructure.

Selected outcomes: 

      Provided direct municipal management
      capacity building in 44 municipalities in the
      interior, resulting in increased revenues for
      municipalities.

      Upgraded informal settlements and
      constructed new housing for 37,000 families.

      Constructed/financed municipal
      infrastructure projects in 16 municipalities.

      Constructed 26 ABC centers for youth and
      young adults and day-care centers.

      Built/recuperated 39 dams and constructed
      335 km of water conveyance systems.
       
      Prepared regional development plans,
      which are the basis for a follow-on, regional
      economic development project – Cidades do
      Ceará.  

Updated: December 2005