Burned in the state of Ceara, where dozens of municipalities are in a state of emergency by drought

In this Thursday, May 31, the National Civil Defense, the Ministry of National Integration of Brazil, published the decrees of recognition of an emergency, due to the drought, in over 227 municipalities, 140 in Ceará state and 97 in Minas Gerais. With these, Brazil has 1,974 municipalities in emergency or public disaster, about 38% of Brazilian municipalities. Most (1040) is due to the drought affecting the nine states of Northeast and North of Minas Gerais, including almost all the 390 municipalities of the Agreste and Sertão in states of Pernambuco, Ceará, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, located in the area covered by the project of export of water of the São Francisco River. The renovation of the criticisms at project of transposition of the São Francisco is one of the matters of March of Waters, June 3, Sunday, opening the popular programming related to the Peoples' Summit Rio +20.

The main claim of the Brazilian government to implement the project of export of water of the São Francisco river, is to bring water to about 12 million people in 390 municipalities of the Agreste and the Sertão of the states of Pernambuco, Ceará, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, which make up part of the semi-arid region of prolonged droughts. The intention is to transport water from the basin of the São Francisco River through canals, tunnels, dams and aqueducts, to the basins of the Semi-Arid temporary. The forecast is for continuous withdrawal of 26.4 m³ / s of water, of which 16.4 m³ / s for the North Axis and 10 m³ / s for the East Axis. The government always reiterates that the volume of water expected to transpose equals 1.42% of the flow corresponding to the dam Sobradinho (1850 m³ / s).

However, social movements and local communities has always criticized the project since it was first announced in late 20th century. According to social movements, the implementation of the project of export of water of the São Francisco river is reaching 50 Quilombolas communities (land of the descendants of slaves) and nine indigenous peoples, many of them with demarcations of territory paralyzed.