In 2005, the Brazilian government decided to divert a part of the São Francisco River in the northern area of the sertão in two transfers. That water is expected to supply drinking water to 12 million people in the federal states of Pernambuco, Paraíba, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte. According to this plan, this water could compensate the agroindustry for the lacking precipitation during periods of drought. 900 kilometers of half-finished concrete waterway now winds its way through the semi-arid hinterland. Hundreds of farmers were partially expropriated in order to build the canal on their land. Their houses are shaken by explosions, their animals killed by construction vehicles and flying stones, and their fruit tree plantations clear-cut.
Forty-two year old Adailton Franzisco Paulo stands on the roof of his house in the village of Curralinho 2 and observes the construction in the valley. Dust flies up from where the excavator rips the earth open. The structure was officially opened a month ago – only symbolically, however; it will still be years until water starts flowing. For Adailton and many other residents, that water will remain out of reach. It will be protected by a four-meter high fence, so that the inhabitants cannot take any water. It has not rained in the region for over two years; many houses do not have running water, they are dependent on the water from their cisterns, which are filled by tankers every few weeks.
Adailton and his family inhabit a small one-story house with four rooms. Nobody in his family has a regular income. His daughters Amanda (22) and Ataiza (20) are finished school, his son Amikael (15) is still going to high school in Cabrobó, some 40 kilometers away. They make their living from farming as well as the three pigs and 30 goats which they breed. Cattle breeding – the basis of existence for the whole state of Pernambuco – came to a halt because of the drought. 960,000 animals fell victim to this drought in the last year alone. Their carcasses can also be found everywhere in Curralinho in the Caatinga. The smell of decay shapes the landscape. Farmers can find the spot an animal died by where the vultures flock. Nobody takes care of the cattle now, they simply do not know how to help them. The animals roam alone and exhausted in search of food through the thorny undergrowth of the Caatinga. They collapse from thirst and hunger and are eaten by vultures and coyotes.
Adailton rides his motorcycle – the modern donkey of the hinterland – to visit his friend José (69). José Pedro Lambin lives with his seven children and two grandchildren in close proximity to the canal. The construction goes on for kilometers and divides his land like a wall. He had to give up 19 hectares of his fertile ground and move his house about 300 meters – and received only 22,000 reais in return. Now he is cut off from his fields, which are on the other side of the canal. There is no passageway, so every day he has to drive a 30 km detour in order to work his fields. His sons and sons-in-law moved into the town of Salgueiro in order to earn money there for the family as day laborers. He works on the fields with the women in hopes that rain will come and the harvest will be sufficient enough to enable everyone to live together once again.
