Severe drought is used to pressure BR-319 in the Amazon – 10/04/2023 – Environment

The severe drought in rivers in the Amazon, with more damaging consequences for cities and communities in Amazonas, gave political impetus to the pressure for the paving of BR-319, which connects Manaus to Porto Velho.

The work could lead to more grabbing of public lands along the highway, increase illegal deforestation and boost criminal logging, according to documents from the environmental licensing process underway at Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources).

Visiting Manaus this Wednesday (4) as ordered by President Lula (PT), with a delegation of ministers, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) said he had spoken the previous day with the Minister of Transport, Renan Filho (MDB ), about the highway paving work. According to the vice-president, a GT (working group) was created to analyze the project.

“There is already an initial section paved,” said the vice president. “I spoke to Renan Filho yesterday. A GT was created to analyze the paving, within the park highway concept, with all environmental precautions.” The objective of the GT is to allow licensing to advance, according to Alckmin.

In July 2022, the then president of Ibama, Eduardo Fortunato Bim, issued a preliminary license for paving the middle section of BR-319, between kilometers 250 and 655.7 – a length of 405.7 kilometers.

Bim was in office on the recommendation of now federal deputy Ricardo Salles (PL-SP), Minister of the Environment in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government. The preliminary license was issued five months before Bolsonaro left power, after defeat at the polls in October 2022.

Proponents of paving argue that it is necessary to reduce the isolation of residents of the two connected states, Amazonas and Rondônia.

With the severe drought this year, political pressure for the highway increased, due to navigation difficulties during the dry period.

The BR-319 Observatory, formed by a network of civil society organizations, researchers and indigenous associations, issued a position opposing the granting of the preliminary license in 2022.

The group stated that the process skipped basic steps, in particular consultation with indigenous populations from five territories and riverside and extractive communities directly impacted by the work.

The Minister of Environment and Climate Change in the Lula government, Marina Silva (Rede), was part of the delegation that visited Manaus this Wednesday to announce measures against the drought. She was questioned by journalists about her position on paving licensing.

“Licensing must respond to criteria of economic, social and environmental viability,” said the minister. “The previous government issued the preliminary license. President Lula forwarded it to the PAC, so that studies could be carried out. And the GT was created. Ibama does not make it difficult or easy, it carries out a technical analysis.”

Marina recalled that she stopped being Minister of the Environment in 2008 and returned to the position in 2023, 15 years later. “If it were easy to build the BR, it would have been done in these 15 years. There are licenses to recover sections, one since 2007, and nothing has been done,” she said.

According to her, the impact of climate change in the Amazon cannot be denied, as it is now, with the drought heading towards extreme moments, equal to or worse than historical marks in certain rivers in the Amazon basin.

“We work to reduce the causes of climate change. In the first Lula government, the reduction in deforestation in the Amazon was 83%, the biggest contribution to date to prevent this from getting worse. And in the first nine months, we achieved a reduction of 48% in deforestation”, said Marina.

In addition to Marina, ministers Waldez Góes (National Integration), Alexandre Silveira (Mines and Energy), José Mucio Monteiro (Defense), Sônia Guajajara (Indigenous Peoples) and Silvio Costa Filho (Ports and Airports) were in the vice-president’s delegation. . They were received by the governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima (União Brasil).

The delegation flew over a community affected by drought, in a region close to Manaus.

Afterwards, the vice-president repeated the announcement of measures such as dredging in 8 km of the Solimões River, between Tabatinga (AM) and Benjamin Constant (AM), with a work order signed this Wednesday; dredging of 12 km on the Madeira River, scheduled to begin in 15 days; advance payment of benefits, such as Bolsa Família; and helps combat fires.

“The energy supply is guaranteed, even with the shutdown of the plant [hidrelétrica] Saint Anthony [no rio Madeira, em Rondônia]”, stated Alckmin. According to him, the contracting of more energy from thermoelectric plants to supply the region is being studied.

Data compiled by the Civil Defense of Amazonas show a worsening of the drought and the situation approaching extreme times of drought — at the worst water levels in historical measurements — in rivers that are the heart of this portion of the Amazon.

The data and analyzes carried out by research and monitoring institutes indicate a drought close to extremes in the upper and middle Solimões river, in the lower Negro river (where Manaus is located) and in the Madeira river.

In these regions, the most visible consequences of the drought have occurred so far. Communities were isolated in Tabatinga (AM) and Benjamin Constant (AM), in upper Solimões. In the lake where Tefé (AM) is located, in the middle Solimões, more than 120 dolphins and tucuxis died in ten days.