NEWS FROM
BRAZIL
supplied by Brazil Justice Net
Number 628, April 13, 2010
Visit our home page at: http://www.braziljusticenet.org
In this week's News from Brazil:
Transposition of the
São Francisco River Creates Lucrative Market for Water
Patricia
Benvenuti, a journalist for Brasil de Fato, recently
interviewed
Roberto Malvezzi of the Catholic Church’s Land Commission
(CPT)
regarding the current state of the transposition of the São
Francisco
River. Since its inception, the project has been surrounded
with
controversy.
What is the current situation of the São Francisco
River’s transposition?
Roberto
Malvezzi (RM): The construction of the work is moving
ahead. The
government accelerated the process of the construction of two canals
and says that in will conclude one by the end of this year--the one
called the “east channel,” that brings water
directly to Paraíba. The
other is to be concluded in 2012. From this point of view, I
think the
government is doing a good job of marketing. I think the
construction
is much more behind schedule; and even if they do advance, the
government will take a while to complete the “east
channel.”
At this moment, what are the impacts being felt in the region because
of this construction?
RM:
The channels have a direct environmental impact, as you will see, in
the “caatinga” region (arid region).
These channels are long and wide,
and require the removal of the communities around them. Some
communities are relocated, and others have many difficulties, as in the
case of the Pipipã indigenous group. The
“west channel” cuts right
through their territory, which is also known as the Biological Reserve
of Serra Negra, in Pernambuco. It is one of the oldest
biological
reserves, created in the 1950’s. Also, there are
many problems in
regions in Paraíba and other states due to poor compensation
people are
receiving in return for giving over their land to the project.
How many people have been removed?
RM:
We don’t have an exact total. The government is
saying 700 families,
but we think it is much more than this. As the area is vast,
we don’t
have connections in every place where the project passes, so we
don’t
have a real estimation of the number of people being
impacted. But
counting only the Pipipãs of the Serra Negra Reserve, there
are more
than 5,000 people. And we know that, directly or indirectly,
the
impact will be much greater than what the government alleges.
What is the current state of the revitalization of the river, as was
promised would happen?
RM:
Revitalization is what we thought it would be. It was in the
mind of
the government a sort of coin exchange, a way to get the
people who
resisted the transposition to “shut up” in exchange
for having the
river cleaned up. But we knew that the government would not
invest
nearly as much in this as in the project itself. Even the
mainstream
press has noted that the investments greatly diverge in what is put
into revitalization as opposed to what is put in the
transposition. I
think that at this moment while working on the transposition, they will
abandon the revitalization. They are only doing something
small as a
way of compensating politically, and not so much out of concern of the
environment. The focus is on the construction of the project.
You
have referred to the Northeast as being a laboratory for the marketing
of water in Brazil. What is the role of the transposition in
this
experiment?
RM: Truthfully, the transposition is the creation
of a lucrative market for water. The mechanism of
the working the
transposition is like this: a certain kind of company will
sell water
from the São Francisco, and when the water goes into other
state
receptors, other companies will buy this water. Afterwards,
these
companies will sell the water to the so-called users, which are still
other companies, and will finally arrive to the final
consumer. So,
the final process and the final cost of this water will be
very
expensive. Personally, I think what is most serious is that
the
companies are going to buy water from the São Francisco and
are going
to appropriate for free rainwater stocked in the big
reservoirs. So,
they are going to sell not only water from the Sâo Francisco,
but also
rainwater from the big dams. It is going to be a big
business--you
will buy water or receive water for free, and then resell it to then
general population. In this way, it is simply following what
the World
Bank has always wanted: create markets for water in
Brazil. This is
prohibited by law, but in practice, the transposition of the
Sâo
Francisco creates this market. It is the international
philosophy of
the merchandising of water. This way of
managing water resources
come to Brazil from France, but if you go to other countries in Latin
America, you will see the same system. It is the system that
these
multinational organisms wanted to implant around the world because you
control the use of water through mechanisms where businesses either buy
the reservoirs or receive from others licenses from the State to
exploit that reservoir. In Brazil, water may not be
privatized, but
the State can concede water for private use, which is what will happen
in the Sâo Francisco Valley. Businesses will buy
this water and be
able to exploit it commercially.
And how are the people the semi-arid region mobilizing in relation to
the transposition?
RM:
Today resistance is greater in Paraíba and in
Ceará. The number of
mayors who have left the pro-transposition side is significant because
they see that the water is running to Paraíba, but it is not
being
distributed. In Ceará, there is resistance from
the populations that
are being dislocated by the transposition. Above all, I think
that the
resistance will grow in the measure that the grand promises of the
government are not kept. The government promises water to 12
million
people in Paraíba, Ceará and Rio Grande do
Norte. So these people have
the expectation that they will get water; and when the water finally
arrives, they will see that it will not go to the general
population.
So, the government will have to face another level of conflict, which
is caused by the real finality of this water. The water has
an
economic end, and the population is being used as a mere
instrument. I
know for sure, through conversations inside the government, that many
people are worried about this. Many even say that they are
distressed
because the transposition is not going to distribute the water, but
only transfer it to the basins of Ceará, Paraíba
and Rio Grande do
Norte which already have water.
Source: Brasil de Fato, April 7, 2010
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