{"id":553907,"date":"2026-07-22T11:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/553907\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T11:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:11:08","slug":"it-cost-2-1bn-to-divert-a-river-in-brazils-outback-so-where-has-all-the-water-gone-global-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/553907\/","title":{"rendered":"It cost \u00a32.1bn to divert a river in Brazil\u2019s outback. So where has all the water gone? | Global development"},"content":{"rendered":"

A concrete canal cutting through the Caatinga scrubland feeds a surface reservoir two and a half miles from Maria de F\u00e1tima Ferreira da Silva\u2019s home in rural Brazil<\/a>. The canal passes Sert\u00e2nia and continues until it reaches Monteiro, the next town along, where it spills its precious cargo into the bed of the Para\u00edba River \u2013 a human-directed inflow into the seasonally dry waterway.<\/p>\n

Such proximity to a reliable water source would usually be considered a blessing in the sert\u00e3o, a vast outback in Brazil\u2019s north-east known for its punishing droughts. But not for Ferreira, who was displaced nearly 20 years ago by the construction of the canal and now lives in a house without any water supply, despite the nearby reservoir.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no water; what are we supposed to do without water?\u201d says the 54-year-old, who depends on what she can grow on her smallholding.<\/p>\n

Maria de F\u00e1tima Ferreira da Silva in her maize crop at Sal\u00e3o productive rural village. She bathes at the reservoir and collects water there for her smallholding and donkey, and pays to fill her barrel with drinking water each month<\/p>\n

The canal and reservoir are part of a big hydrological supply system billed as the solution to the sert\u00e3o\u2019s water scarcity: the diversion of the 1,700-mile-long S\u00e3o Francisco River, the longest river running entirely on Brazilian territory and the source of 70% of the north-east region\u2019s water supply.<\/a><\/p>\n

The ever-present threat of drought in the sert\u00e3o is only likely to increase with the climate crisis, which accelerates desertification and is already driving a shift to a hotter, drier climate<\/a> in this region. While programmes such as Water for All<\/a> and One Million Cisterns<\/a> have improved water access across the north-east, the S\u00e3o Francisco diversion does so at scale, providing water security to 12 million people, the government says.<\/p>\n

But nine years after the canal<\/a> first brought water to Monteiro, some continue to question the scheme\u2019s success \u2013 particularly for the communities that were the most affected by the infrastructure project but feel its benefits the least.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, the diversion has not been beneficial. It caused immense damage to the donor basin while yielding little effectiveness for the sert\u00e3o,\u201d says Jana\u00edna Andrade, a regional prosecutor for citizen rights, who acts like an ombudsman in Para\u00edba state, where Monteiro is located.<\/p>\n

double quotation markSome people don\u2019t remember what it was like in the past: we were vulnerable, we were thirsty, it was difficultAgnaldo Freitas da Silva, Vila Lafayette residents\u2019 association<\/p>\n

Lula has a personal interest in easing the water insecurity in the sert\u00e3o, having migrated from there as a child.<\/p>\n

Ana Paula Pires Koga, a geography professor at the Federal University of Catal\u00e3o, who has studied the project, says: \u201cIn his first term, in 2006, Lula made the diversion part of the growth acceleration [infrastructure] programme<\/a>.\u201d The president talked about \u201cquenching the thirst of the sertanejos\u201d, she adds.<\/p>\n

Construction of the \u00a32.1bn ($2.8bn) river diversion scheme, which began in 2007, required the expropriation of about 2,000 properties<\/a> to make way for the infrastructure required to move enough water to feed rivers and reservoirs across four states: two main canals, each more than 130 miles long, hundreds of miles of secondary canals, as well as tunnels, aqueducts, pumping stations and electricity substations.<\/p>\n

The 848 most vulnerable families were relocated to 18 planned neighbourhoods known as \u201cproductive rural villages\u201d (VPRs), such as Vila Sal\u00e3o, where Ferreira lives. Each family was given a three-bedroom house and a few hectares of land as part of a compensation package that also includes financial support.<\/p>\n

Yet Vila Sal\u00e3o is a far cry from the government\u2019s vision of VPRs<\/a> as communities connected to running water and sewage services, equipped with a health centre and a school, and receiving enough water to irrigate one hectare (2.5 acres) for each family. The houses in Vila Sal\u00e3o are not connected to the water mains, and the communal buildings stand abandoned in the centre of the grid-shaped neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Maria de Lourdes Souza da Silva at home in Lafayette village in Monteiro, where the arrival of water allowed her to grow a range of fruit, vegetables and other crops<\/p>\n

Andrade says: \u201cPeople were relocated to the productive village \u2013 but without water. They had no water for human consumption, for their livestock or for agricultural production.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these people who were relocated had artesian wells and were self-sufficient. They were taken to a territory without means of production and became dependent on benefits,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

That has been Ferreira\u2019s experience. Some of her neighbours in Vila Sal\u00e3o have dug a well, but she cannot afford to do so. So she goes to the reservoir to bathe and collect water for her modest crops and donkey, and pays to have a 1,000-litre barrel filled with drinking water every month. \u201cThings were better before,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Even in Vila Lafayette, a VPR up the road in Monteiro with better living conditions, there is a persistent sense of loss among the uprooted people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t complain,\u201d says Maria de Lourdes Souza da Silva, 64. But she remembers how, 17 years earlier, her mother was taken ill after being told she had two weeks to leave the home she had spent a lifetime building. Her mother died shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wasn\u2019t that happy [about moving] because I lost my mother and the place where we lived in the process,\u201d Souza says. \u201cThat was where we were raised, where our roots were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to put down new roots,\u201d she adds, sitting among pots of desert roses on her porch.<\/p>\n

With the diversion works concluded \u2013 albeit after long delays amid abandoned projects and cancelled contracts<\/a> \u2013 the federal government considers it has done its part<\/a>, although Lula continues to inaugurate various additional sections of the project since returning to power in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome cities are feeling tangible benefits, but the big question is about water reaching the populations scattered across the semi-arid region,\u201d says Pires Koga.<\/p>\n

The ministry of development and regional integration refused an interview and did not directly answer questions. It simply said that its responsibility was limited to transporting the water and that distribution to citizens and community relocation were \u201cthe exclusive responsibility of operators and state and municipal administrations\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Vila Lafayette, the persistence of the residents\u2019 association, with support from Andrade\u2019s office, made it the first VPR to be connected to mains water and, last year, to receive the promised water for irrigation.<\/p>\n

Irrigated fields, most planted with maize, at Lafayette village. The crops are fed with water from the S\u00e3o Francisco River<\/p>\n

Agnaldo Freitas da Silva, who is vice-president of the residents\u2019 association, says: \u201cI went knocking on the door of the state assembly, and I took part in their public hearings. I said: \u2018I\u2019m not going to let it go; the state government has to give us water. We can\u2019t stay in this situation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Freitas, 52, hopes to install solar panels to reduce the community\u2019s energy costs for pumping the irrigation water from the canal. The school, which was never staffed, has been converted into a cold-storage facility where dairy farmers can keep their milk before it is sold.<\/p>\n

It has not been easy, Freitas says, but he is satisfied with the life he has made for himself. He keeps chickens and has fish tanks, as well as growing fruit and vegetables that he sells through a government programme<\/a> to support family farming.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people don\u2019t remember what it was like in the past: we were vulnerable, we were thirsty; it was difficult. Today we\u2019re all rich; we have what we need,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Edileuza dos Santos Leite and her husband, Jos\u00e9 Ricardo Leite, outside their home in Sal\u00e3o, Sert\u00e2nia. The village has yet to receive any water from the S\u00e3o Francisco River project, which Edileuza blames on a lack of local unity<\/p>\n

The residents of the shabbier Vila Sal\u00e3o, 17 miles away, have not been so lucky, because they have not managed to pull together, says Edileuza dos Santos Leite, 55. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t united here,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She hopes the state governor, who is running for re-election this year, will fix things. \u201cGod willing, we\u2019ll have water soon,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A concrete canal cutting through the Caatinga scrubland feeds a surface reservoir two and a half miles from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-553907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}