First municipality to declare an emergency due to the drought is still waiting for help

After 45 days of recognition by the Union of the decree of emergency situation signed by the mayor of Tupanciretã, Gustavo Herter Terra, the politician decided, this Monday, to take the road towards the Capital. The idea is to camp outside the Piratini Palace until you can be received by Governor Eduardo Leite or by the Chief Secretary of the Civil House, Artur Lemos.

It’s just that since the decree, on December 1st, passing through recognition by the federal government, 15 days later, nothing, or almost nothing has changed in the municipality, the first to adopt the measure in the State.

“We received a mobile reservoir for storing and transporting drinking water to dozens of families that were short of supply. About 15 days ago, two artesian wells were opened, in an initiative of the state government. The city hall built 480 drinking fountains with its own resources, and the resources announced last year by the State for the construction of another 12 have just arrived”, says Terra.

The winter with little rain prevented the recovery of the springs in the region. Strands and bathed are dry. The situation is serious, which is why the mayor adopted a critical tone in the analysis of the obstacles that prevent the reservation of water in areas of permanent preservation.

“The legislation has to stop being ideological. It is necessary to reserve water in swamps, in the lowlands. Not in the coxilhas”.

Terra wants attention and aid from the State for the communities that make up the Association of Municipalities of the Central Region of the State (AmCentro).

“We have emergency guidelines, such as making machinery available for building reservoirs. And permanent ones, such as providing seeds for replanting lost crops. In most dryland corn crops, the break was 100%”, laments Gustavo Terra .

A technical report issued by the local Emater office on January 27 pointed out that the losses in the municipality that has been suffering from the drought for the longest time already reached R$ 326.4 million. Julieta Lopes, president of the Rural Union of Tupanciretã, imagines that the real loss is even greater than that calculated by the technicians of the different bodies and entities that follow the crisis.

“In soy, it should exceed 25%. We had hope for rain this week, but we look at the sky and see that it has already gone. Those who have livestock face increased expenses with animal feed. And even silage does not yield Without water in the dams, it was not even possible to finish the cycle of maize cultivated with a central pivot, because, without rain, the sources of the Toropi and Jaguari rivers are low”, he says.

The situation is even more serious among small producers. Vice-president of the Union of Rural Workers of Tupanciretã and Jari, Eloadir Reis points out that they have already been punished by the climate for three consecutive years.

“We need actions, concrete measures. But so far we have not had any effective response”, complains Reis.

This Monday, until 7 pm, the economic loss already reached R$ 6.128 billion in the spreadsheets of the Federation of Associations of Municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul (Famurs). The calculation covered information from 126 municipalities that reported to the Integrated Disaster Information System (S2ID).

Agriculture lost BRL 4.7 billion along the way, while livestock has already consolidated losses of BRL 1.4 billion. And there was still R$ 11.4 million in costs for transporting drinking water to communities where it is lacking. Of the 219 city halls that reported a declaration of an emergency situation, 190 already had decrees in force, 92 of which were approved by the State and 74 recognized by the Union.