Cities in AL exchange food for water and pilgrimage – 10/02/2023 – Power

Donkeys carrying blue plastic jugs on their backs or in carts make up a frequent scene both on the side of dirt roads and in the mountains of the Alagoas backlands.

The pilgrimage is daily in search of water, sometimes several trips a day on journeys that can exceed 10 km, under a scorching sun and along steep paths.

The state’s hinterland and countryside make up one of the areas of the semi-arid region that suffers the greatest abandonment of effective policies that enable the population to live with drought.

Such as Sheet showed, parliamentary amendments and the allocation of federal bodies that deal with the issue created abyss in the Brazilian semi-arid region, with entire regions abandoned by public policies.

Unprecedented data analysis shows that almost all of the cities listed in a study by Embrapa Territorial as having the highest priority for the installation of cisterns did not receive any reservoirs in the last year from the main federal agencies dedicated to the problem. The majority of these municipalities are in Alagoas.

One of the most delicate situations is that of Mata Grande, currently in an emergency situation and served by the Army’s water truck operation. But the city has mountains and difficult-to-access places where these trucks cannot reach.

Farmer Inês Galdino, 82, lives in one of the more than a thousand houses in the city that need a cistern and don’t have one. If it had a 16,000 liter reservoir, it could collect water during the rainy season to live in the dry.

The public authorities have not installed any of this equipment there for some time, and the existing ones, in some of the houses in the neighborhood, already bear the marks of time, having been built before the abandonment of the federal cistern program during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL ). The Lula (PT) government promised to resume it, benefiting 60 thousand people.

Inês lives practically as she did when she arrived there in 1961, without a bathroom inside the house or a TV.

Residents of the region generally fetch water from sources that are difficult to access, on walks that can last two hours through rugged areas. Trips can be repeated on the same day, as it is necessary to bring consignments of drinking water to take a shower, wash dishes and feed animals, among other tasks.

“But I can’t do it, I’m sick”, says the farmer. “It’s such a huge sacrifice for us to get the water here.”

Unable to venture into the mountains, she spends the little money she has paying local residents to bring her supplies by cart – and estimates that, in total, she spends R$80 per month. Money that will be needed in the pantry, to complement the little she gives on the small farm.

The cost of a cistern, around R$6,000, is small compared to the revolution it makes in the lives of the beneficiaries. Close to Inês’ house, the Urubu community begins to glimpse a different reality – and not thanks to public authorities.

There, the population spends up to two hours going to and from a source, more than 1 km away, along an extremely rough path. With the help of donkeys, some residents make the same journey three or four times in a day.

Cícero Claudino da Silva, 46, has walked this stretch countless times. Travel, however, has reduced now that he and his family have received cisterns at home.

This year, the World Vision organization, in partnership with the private sector, installed 20 cisterns in that neighborhood and plans to reach one hundred by 2024.

As Cícero’s reservoir is not full, he still goes to the source sometimes to get drinking water, but the plan is to be able to become self-sufficient, as per the training he underwent before receiving the equipment.

“This is gold for us. We suffered, we don’t suffer anymore”, says Silva, remembering the daily routine.

“In the summer, we would go out for four hours to get water far away, by donkey”, he says, who, on the tortuous path to the source, met many women, responsible for most of the houses there, some of them already elderly.

With rivers that disappear during the dry period, the Brazilian semi-arid region has the lowest percentage of reserved water in the country, approximately 3%, according to information from the Brazilian Semi-Arid Articulation (ASA).

This makes rainwater an important source of supply, but, according to the entity’s estimate, there is a demand for around 350,000 16,000-liter cisterns to capture precipitation.

Maria da Paz, project coordinator at Cactus, an entity that works with the population of several cities in the backlands of Alagoas, says that the cisterns reduce dependence on local politicians.

“In fact, the water tanker is a currency for voting in this region of the Northeast. When I don’t have water, I’m dependent on having to ask for it,” he says.

Neighboring Mata Grande, Água Branca experienced its most critical moment at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, precisely when the Army’s water tanker operation trucks stopped supplying homes. The city, which has a deficit of cisterns for human consumption that amounts to around a thousand pieces of equipment, started to appeal to councilors and the city hall.

At 68 years old, farmer Maria de Fátima dos Santos has already had to walk long distances to get water in a village.

“There were days here when tears came down my face, because I didn’t have a drop of water to wash my eyes,” he says.

“There’s a grandson of mine who said he likes to bathe. I said: ‘my son, the water here is difficult'”, he adds.

She lives in an MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement) settlement with her family. The lack of reservoirs for everyone, however, means that water is insufficient for all household chores even when the water tanker arrives.

Although the settlers are farmers, without water, little grows on the dry and stony land where Maria de Fátima lives. Goat farming is one of the main activities there, but quenching the animals’ thirst also requires seeking more supplies from nearby streams.

Maria de Fátima’s family, for example, makes frequent journeys by cart to a small river that passes through those parts. That’s when it doesn’t dry.

According to José Neto, from the MST’s national directorate in Alagoas, most of the movement’s 19 settlements in the state’s backlands have similar problems. In desperation, some send messages to the movement asking for help.

“Good morning, things are bad, because until today no water has arrived, my son. It seems that the only way is to pack up my bundle and get out of here. Even the little drop of water that was there in the stream, which we are digging in the sand to take it, it’s drying. If it dries, my son, it’s gone”, says the audio of a woman, shared with the report.

The lack of water has an impact on food, since agriculture is a source not only of income but also of subsistence for families. According to an ASA survey, there is a demand for around 800,000 larger cisterns for food production in the semi-arid region – in Alagoas, the number would be around 27,000.

The problems also extend to cities in rural Alagoas, such as Minador do Negrão.

The city is one of the settings for the film “Vidas Secas”, by Nelson Pereira dos Santos, based on the classic by Graciliano Ramos. Sixty years after the film was released, residents still face problems of water scarcity.

The traffic of carts and motorbikes with people carrying barrels of water up and down happens even in urban areas, as piped water frequently disappears.

According to members of the city’s farmers’ association, the biggest lack there is cisterns for food production. In 2021, residents of 50 properties underwent training to receive the 52 thousand liter equipment. Thirty of them, however, are still waiting today.

Collaborated Flávio Ferreira, from Sao Paulo