Supreme Court of Brazil removes stop of work for river diversion

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) described as "a severe setback for the Indian and Afro-Brazilian communities" the judgement of the Supreme Court of Brazil, which on Wednesday allowed the construction work on the diversion of the São Francisco River in the north-east of Brazil . "The reasons given by the Court in removing the stop of work imposed on 10th December for the so-called Transposição because the project does not affect the areas of the native people are quite incomprehensible", said Yvonne Bangert, of the Department for Indigenous Peoples at the GfbV on Thursday in Göttingen. "34 Indian territories and 153 estates of the Quilombolas (Afro-Brazilians) lie in its catchment area". Many members of these communities are fishermen and rice farmers. Their existence is in danger because the diversion will dry out even more the Rio São Francisco, which is already suffering under the Bobradinho and Itaparica dams. In addition work on the North Canal at Cabrobró has started, where for years the tribe of the approximately 1800 Kirirí has been fighting for its traditional territory. The approximately 9000 Tumbalalá and Truka Indians have also been protesting with land occupation campaigns against the diversion of the river.

The Transposição is a prestige project of the government of Lula da Silva. Two canals with together a length of 700 km are to bring the water from the river northwards via several large pumping stations, where it is to be used above all for sugar-cane and fruit plantations, prawn farms and the steel industry in the area of Fortaleza. Just four percent of the water is intended for the needy private households.

Indians living alongside the river, Quilombolas, people without land and environmentalists make up with large human rights organisations like the Indian Mission Council (CIMI) and the Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Commission for Country Pastorate,* *CPT-PB) a broad opposition against the project. Spectacular indeed is the sign set by the bishop of the diocese Barra in the Brazilian federal state of Bahia , Dom Flávio Cappio, has set. Since 27^th November he has fasted and prayed to bring the government to a new dialogue on how the water of the Rio São Francisco can be used in a more ecological way and for the use of the rural population and not of large-scale industry. When the judgement was announced Dom Cappio broke down and had to be admitted to hospital.