In this work we analyze the popular participation role in the urban political planning and management of the city of Belem, using the “Bacia do Una Macrodrenagem” Project (Una basin macro drainage project) as reference. We also try to recognize the popular participation process in the Macrodrenagem Project, as well as its dynamics, composition,
articulation, and actions, which both direct and are directed by the State; we analyze the importance and consequences of such popular participation in the Project, trying to
understand the strategies of popular sectors and their eventual contribution for the project development. We try to identify whether the popular organization remains active during the conclusion stage of the physical public works, as well as the advances and difficulties regarding their inclusion in the urban political planning and management through the Una Project. The project itself was conceived in the 80’s aiming at cleaning the low parts of the
city – a problem most people hoped would be solved by public administration. Basic
sanitation in the area had become extremely critical for all elected governments, and they
have not done much to solve the crisis, conducting only a few corrective and palliative measures, without solving major problems for the population, such as flooding, inexistent drainage systems, damaged bridges, etc. The situation elicited popular organization struggles in order to overcome such poor conditions, demanding effective action from public administration, as well as popular participation in the city management. The methodology used was bibliographic and documental research, direct observation, and field research
conducted between 2004 and 2005 with 100 community organizations, distributed among 9 city districts (within the Macrodrenagem Project area), where questionnaires were answered in order to assess the insertion process as well as the importance, advances and difficulties of popular participation in the Project. The Una Project technical staff and leaders were interviewed. Some results of the data analysis showed that popular participation had an important role in the Project implementation, and intervened in the project actions through popular organization and pressure on state government. Another important result was that, in the final stage of the Project, popular organizations created a Management Council, showing the importance of past experiences with community struggles, changing mobilization strategies through popular sectors training programs, which lead them to think the city as a
whole, identifying the elements where social contradictions usually emerge.
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