In this week's News from Brazil:

United Against the Diversion Project
by Clarice Tavares and Maria Luisa Mendoça

In spite of having rained only a little this year, there are signs of spring in the northeastern sertao.  A road that goes to Sobradinho is full of flowers, which pop up in yellows, reds, whites and pinks, welcoming the delegations that have come from all over the northeast and from other regions of the country to the Conference of the Peoples of the São Francisco and the Semi-Arid Region, from February 25 to 27.  This was the first moment of reconvening since they were mobilized during the hunger strike of Dom Luis Cappio, which lasted 24 days and ended on December 21 in 2007.

The agenda: the people’s struggle and development of the campaign for the whole year, reuniting the diversity of entities and regions.  Once again the position against the project of the water diversion project of the São Francisco River and all that it represents is reaffirmed.  “There is a deepening [of commitment], given that the movements gain new impetus and they are responding positively . . . pointing out where we are going to march and on which forces we can count,” said bishop Luiz Cappio.

He affirmed that “unfortunately the government wants to carry out the work at any cost,” but said he still believes that the super project will be [seen as] more of a fallacy that is against the popular will and which “shouldn’t get finished” because of the “economic, social, ethical and environmental” implications.

The bishop had fasted for 24 days, at the end of last year, against the project of the diversion of the São Francisco River.  During that act the social and popular movements planned the organization of the Conference.  Sobradinho was the chosen place was for this gathering, symbolizing the whole process, with proof of the degradation with the presence of hydroelectricity and damming, surrounded by wounds and people in a situation of misery.

Water in the Northeast

During the three days of workshops, debates and plenary sessions, some things held the attention of the participants (around 200 peoples from more than 90 social organizations and popular movements) such as statistics presented by engineer Manoel Bonfim, who previously was the director of the Campaign for Development of the Valley of the São Francisco (Codevasf) and of the National Department of Works Against Drought (DNOCS).

One of the most important researchers of the region, professor Manoel Bonfim explained that “it is a lie to say that there is no water in the Northeast”.  According to him, in the Brazilian Semi-Arid region it rains more that the world average for this type of bio-region.  The problem is the high degree of evaporation, which reaches to 80%.  However, of the remaining 20% only 1% of the water from rain is used.  “We have 70,000 dams in the region, with the capacity 15 times greater than the Bay of Guanabara [in the Rio de Janeiro region].  This water will be enough for every use, but they lack canals and complementary works for distribution, what will avoid loss from evaporation, since the waters won’t stand still.  Moreover, there is much water underground, which will be sufficient to supply the whole population of the Northeast,” in his assessment.

The numbers presented by Bonfim show that the diversion will really be unnecessary.  The project predicts the diversion of 2 billion cubic meters of the water of the São Francisco.  Just the dam of Castanhão, in Ceará, accumulates 6 billion cubic meters per year, of theses 2 billion evaporate.  Meanwhile, the quantity of water made available with the diversion will only make up for that which evaporates in this dam.

“We have two challenges, the first is to combat the drought and the other is the coexistence with the semi-arid region,” argued Luciano Silveira, from the Network of the Semi-Arid Region (ASA – o Articulação do Semi-Árido), in Paraiba.  He said that in the case of the first challenge, political forces perpetuate the drought industry; and the second challenge requires the application of balanced alternatives which are compatible to the reality of the place.

“Our struggle took a national and international dimension, but this place represents the rebelliousness and resistance of the people, which ought to be understood like a process,” explains Rubens Siqueira, coordinator of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT – o Comissão Pastoral da Terra), who remembered the various moments of mobilization against the diversion project, such as occupations during the Red April, the encampment in Cabrobó, the retaking of the lands of the Truká people, the pilgrimage from the land of Minas Gerais, the occupation of the Sobradinho dam, the closure of the bridge between Juazeiro and Petrolina, in addition to the protests and fasts of solidarity, in 2007.  Derli Casali, of the Small Farmers Moviment (MPA – o Movimento de Pequenos Agricultores), makes the analysis of the role (or performance) of the big businesses in the region.  “The Northeast is the only supplier left of cheap manual labor.  Today the capital has interest in the strategic means and the natural assets of the caatinga [the dry scrubland of the Semi-Arid Region], which is rich in biodiversity.  The diversion comes from this logic of grand projects, in the context of the Program for Development Accelaration (PAC – Programma de Acceleração do Crescimento) and the Intergration of the South American Regional Infrastructure (IIRSA – Integração da Infraeestrutura Regional Sul-americana)”.

Luciano Silveira, from ASA, presented a criticism of the model of development historically adopted in this region, which focuses on land and water.  “The problem is of a political nature.  Obviously for a population that is spread out, which suffers from drought, only expert skills will work for distribution of water, such as successive dams, underground movements, wells, . . and other simple skills.  The caatinga is a great biological heritage, but it is being destroyed.  It is necessary to rescue the indigenous knowledge of coexisting with the Semi-Arid Region.

The farmer José Santana, from MPA, explains that “this so-called model of development imposes monocultural farming and destroying our way of life.  The wisdom of the rural people is an accumulated treasure and we need to struggle in order to remain in the country.”  Rita de Cássia, an activist in MPA, completes the argument: “There are plants that only exist in this region, but our seeds are being stolen by the giant companies.

Dry São Francisco

Many other statements denounced the destruction of the São Francisco.  In Sergipe, there are stretches where the river is completely dry and the people living there cross the bed by motorbike.  Professor Manoel Bonfim says that in many places, the water of the São Francisco is salty, since the river lost its force against the sea.  In the north of Minas Gerais, fisher people tell that the pollution from the Votorantim mining company caused the death of 80,000 tons of fish.  “For us, the river is a source of life and food.  This project of the diversion represents a second colonization and the death of the indigenous people,” affirms Marcos Sabarú, representative of the Truká people.

Andréa Zellhuber, from the CPT, says that the high consumption of water for agriculture based on irrigated monocultural farming is causing a process of desertification in the Semi-Árid Region and the diversion worsens this problem.  Another preoccupation is the devastation of scrubland, where the sources of the São Francisco are found.  The erosion of soils from the scrubland make the river run dry.  Today the average depth of the São Francisco is from 1 meter and almost is not able to be navigated.

The government has used revitalization of the river and even agrarian reform as a way of making the diversion project more pallitible; but as environmentalist Henrique Cortez explains, “if the government does six kilometers of settlements with irrigation, as promised, there will not be enough water to supply the northern part of the project.  It is clear that this is a lie.”  For Derli Casali, of the MPA, “Any attempt at revitalization of the São Francisco will be impossible, since they are opposed to each other.”

Beyond the conference, they organized other activities with the people of Sobradinho, which lodged the majority of the delegates of other states.  In one of these events, Dom Cappio recalled that “this struggle is not like a soccer game, which lasts 90 minutes.  The struggle is for life.”

Source:  Brasil de Fato, March 3, 2008

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