The costal strip of Asuncion

Abstract

The author tells of how the Asunción Costal strip is subject in its 16 km length to periodic flooding which affects its nigh 1,600 ha riverside extension and the population of 55,000 souls there living and precariously at that.The city's new democratic government is said to have plans to put an end to this serious situation that yearly costs 12 million dollars in temporary rehousing and repairing damage and denies a decent life to so many of its citizens. A master plan proposes the recreation of a positive interaction as between the city and its river in which the contact zone (the gullies between the city proper and the unplanned and floodable city) would be redefined thanks to a sector strategic hydraulic barrier, this to be flanked by a riverside drive upon which new, quality housing could be structured thus making good, healthy and the better the present day shadow zones thereabouts at present. The author explains that this would lead to the protecting of those present day districts now at risk( pop. 55,000) the creation of new residential districts (for pop. 25,000),and the strengthening of adjacent neighbourhoods (pop. 30,000). Furthermore the entire riverside population (another 70 to 100,000 persons) would also benefit from the project. The floodable areas, once freed of improper use and its consequent contamination, would then become a nature reserve (362 ha.) and thus give Asunción seven times more green zones than at present. The author explains that the project would be carried out in stages over a 20 year period, this through a combining of the seven programmes and thirty projects that go to make it up (services construction, hygiene schemes, housing and re-housing projects, employment, science and cultural initiatives). Said project would call for an agreement as between the State, the City and the Interamerican Developmen t Bank (BID). The Author explains that the project as set forth in the paper is the fruit of an agreement between the Asunción City Hall and FLACAMfFundación CEPA and that its coordinating manager was the architect Gonzalo Garay (the City Development Manager of Ausunción) and her Technical Director the architect Rubén Pesei (Director of FLACAM and President of CEPA).