Groundwater relevance for Brazilian semiarid development in the northeast: the need for protective environmental laws.

Abstract

The Brazilian semiarid region is ideal for analyzing the impact of groundwater for human development and equity and for the formation of resilient territories, considering the process of climate change and also the large number of rural properties in existence. The question is: precisely what is the relevance of groundwater for survival in the Brazilian semiarid region? In the international context, there is a growing need to map more precisely the potential of groundwater to complement existing water systems or even to support increasing demand for water, especially from the viewpoint of production of food for the export market in a profile focused on more sophisticated agribusiness on a larger production scale.1 Groundwater has served to provide communities with adaptive mechanisms that assist in local and regional development, and their importance for the establishment of a milder reality is substantial, as it has been demonstrated that conventional urban systems have not reached these communities. However, it is essential to understand that these aquifers are fundamental for resilience in the process of climate change in regions with an ecosystem as delicate as the Brazilian semiarid region.2 Huge investments like the transposition of the São Francisco River have not yet been used by these populations; in fact, such works have had a negative impact on groundwater. Presented in this chapter is a region of Brazil known as semiarid, in the portion corresponding to the northeast region of the country, whose rural life depends largely on reservoir waters and, mainly, wells drilled by governmental and non-governmental organizations. Where these structures do not exist, these populations survive by waiting for water that can be reserved in masonry structures known as slab cisterns, or by buying water or waiting for “pipa” cars, which are government-owned trucks providing water supply. The scarcity of more accessible water sources drives the inhabitants of this region to seek water from below-ground points, whose uses are multiple— notably, agricultural production and raising animals such as sheep, oxen, and cows. In this regard, Barati et al3 present the absence of intelligent governance on the balance of water stocks as an impediment to the survival of these systems. Local governments assist in the process of drilling urban and rural wells as a strategy to withstand the effects of drought. Although this region has benefited from the transposition of the São Francisco River, it only affects the installed water supply system, as there is no water utility network in rural areas. The communities in this region are consistently deprived of water supply and must use water from water trucks, which draw water from other reservoirs in and out of the state, as well as from drilled wells. Water in these places is precious in the face of periodic scarcity, and in consequence it needs to be well-managed. Since the soil is crystalline and very rocky, the water in this region has a high salinity.4 However, it is possible to install systems that assist in the management of this water and its waste, with the reuse of water being a concrete possibility, since this region needs all possible water supply to increase its level of resilience.5 Low rainfall throughout the year is an expected feature, and community planning is essential in view of existing water use. It is important to emphasize that the government maintains a “fresh water” program, which aims precisely to install desalination plants that are fundamental in complementing the process of distributing scarce water to semiarid communities. This policy is inserted in a context of mitigating the effects of drought or the absence of rainfall, and the need to provide communities with adaptive instruments to create resilience mechanisms for a more acute process of drought brought about by the dynamics of climate change. Therefore, we present here the results of our studies conducted in this region, and we stress the importance and the possibilities of the Master’s degree course in Water Resources Management and Regulation. The study was conducted mainly through this Master’s course, in partnership between the Federal University of Campina Grande and the São Paulo State University. This chapter aims to demonstrate the importance of groundwater for the development of a region that already has water scarcity as a reality in its daily life, where drought periods are very intense and water sources are fundamental to the maintenance of rural life.