Jardim de asfalto: água, meio ambiente, canalização e as políticas públicas de saneamento básico em Belo Horizonte, 1948-1973

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the sanitary system public policies of Belo Horizonte, between 1948 1973, focusing on the channelization of Minas Gerais state capital rivers and on its water distribution system. The main hypothesis stands that the initiatives of coverage of the watercourses of Belo Horizonte in this period were directly related to the development policy in which cars and asphalt were protagonists. The research on diverse sources, like newspapers, municipality reports, photographs among others, showed how the case of Belo Horizonte offers a unique opportunity to discuss the relations between politics, city, society and nature in a wider context of development policies, metropolization and political life in Brazil.