It is well known that droughts in the Northeast are periodic and, as a natural phenomenon, there is no way to combat them. It's a natural phenomenon and it has its history. In Marco Antônio Villa's book on Death and Life in the Sertão, we come across the picture of drought in the North-Northeast of Brazil and we realize that this problem is chronic and of long standing. The transposition of the São Francisco River had its project stimulated several times in the past and, currently, under the name of the PT, the works of this pharaonic project began.
This project for the semiarid is being managed in an authoritarian and undemocratic way, society has not given its opinion on its realization. As Paulo Henrique Martinez expressed: “This is not about arguing technically for or against the project. It is about thinking about the political implications that it entails, revealing the citizenship in crisis in the country”.
There are many opinions and studies against and in favor of this project, and this has to be studied and debated, but the fact is that the São Francisco River and the irrigation of the Northeast its waters are a project that has its history since the 19th century, not only to quench the thirst of thousands of victims, but also as a source of economic development, the which, in other projects (such as dams and gushing wells) caused a lot of land concentration, real estate speculation, displacement of people on irrigable land etc. All in favor of the “colonels” of the sertão who were one of those responsible for the true drought industry.
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According to some authors, as in the case of João Suassuna, a researcher at the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation and a specialist in droughts in the semiarid region, what is lacking in the region is political will, because, according to him, “... politicians, as a general rule, usually do politics with the suffering and misery of the people. Production alternatives exist and are not implemented because, in fact, the public administrators the indispensable political will to define structuring actions in the semiarid. And it has been lacking because to make it happen means to go against interests, which are often located in the basis of the government's parliamentary support. That's exactly where our real drought is.”
However, the transposition of the São Francisco river shows, on a national scale, the ineffectiveness that dominated regulatory bodies of social life and government in Brazil, by not considering the opinion of society Brazilian. People within the legislature and the judiciary should look at this issue much more closely, not just make it a political and economic issue. Reputable people committed to quality of life and public interest (apart from the issues that are also the target of criticism) should play their roles more vigorously and rigorously. assignments. Brazilian society wants and expects this from its representatives in all spheres.
Per Amilson Barbosa
Columnist Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PERCILIA, Eliene. "Transposition of the São Francisco River"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/brasil/transposicao-rio-sao-francisco-rio-sao.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
