00:00 Let's cross now to Tim Vickery in Rio de Janeiro. Tim, what is the latest on the ground in regards
00:06 to that flooding?
00:10 Rio counting the cost, 12 known to have died either through drowning, electric shocks or
00:15 being buried in landslides and some 600 have been rendered homeless. Most of the debris
00:24 and so on has now been contained and look at the backdrop behind me. It's absolute
00:30 scalding summer sunshine, temperatures around 34 degrees and you look at that and it's almost
00:36 inconceivable that just a few days ago we had such heavy rain and that I think is part
00:40 of the problem. It's a failure of the imagination because every time this kind of thing happens
00:46 and it happens every year, it always seems to strike people as something new.
00:49 Yet from what I understand this is indeed not a new problem, is it Tim?
00:58 No it isn't. There are aspects of the new world here. The quantity of rain that fell
01:04 around 280 millimetres in two days. Now no city in the world would find it easy to cope
01:10 with that. That's more than the monthly average. That's seen as a historical figure and indeed
01:16 the thermic sensation today around 50 degrees, that's also part of this new world. But we're
01:22 dealing very, very much with old problems here in Rio. There have been floodings recorded
01:28 ever since 1575, almost as old as the city itself and it happens on a regular basis.
01:34 Part of this is geographical. Those areas to the north of the city are below the level
01:39 of the sea. So if there's heavy rain and high tide, that's always going to be a dangerous
01:45 combination. Also plenty of age-old Brazilian problems. The way that many people just throw
01:51 their garbage away in the street, flows to the rivers, blocks them up. Inadequate maintenance.
01:58 Turf wars between different levels of government. Who is really responsible for getting a grip
02:04 on the problem? And also uncontrolled urban expansion with many people living precariously
02:11 on the banks of the rivers adding to the problem. And so often, again and again and again, it's
02:18 the poor who are in the most precarious situations and it's the poor who suffer most when disasters
02:24 such as this occur. Tim Vickery reporting there from Rio de Janeiro. Thank you.
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