The art of curumins (boys) in the waters of the Amazon River (Photo: Floriano Lins)
FATIMA GUEDES
To talk about water today is to bring to light two fundamental realities: the right to life and the common good. Control of drinking water sources has been one of the strategic objectives of imperialist governments. Large multinational companies already privatize drinking water around the world: Vivendi and Suez-Lyonnaise (from France), RWE (from Germany), Thames Water (from England), Bechtel and Coca-Cola (from the United States), Nestlé (from Switzerland).
In response to environmental technical analysis and projections, in 1997, in Marrakesh, the UN defended water as an economic good. And, at the II World Water Forum, in Kyoto, in the second half of March 2003, the debates turned to the advancement of the precious liquid market. In the same year, on March 22, in Florence, the First Alternative World Water Forum declared the water as a human right , in an attempt to stop the privatization of supply services and the regulation of the so-called water market. On July 21, 2010, the UN, opposing commodification, passed the resolution: safe drinking water and basic sanitation constitute an essential human right .
Other data deserve attention to better understand that, when it comes to natural assets – especially this irreplaceable and apparently inexhaustible resource in the Amazon – it is impossible to ignore its close connection with the world needs for the survival of all species, with direct influence and indirect on the quality of life and on the existence of all living beings. Data show that 1.5 billion people in the world lack water supply. For lack of this access or sanitation, more than 30 thousand people die every day. In Florence, it was proposed the World Water Contract, under which the acceding nations undertake to prevent any of their citizens from being denied access to drinking water by the year 2020.
It is also essential to clarify that, in impoverished countries, one out of every five children dies, before reaching five years of age, from diseases related to water quality. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), 85% of diseases are related to water.
In order to reinforce the universal commitment to the issue, already announced in a previous moment, it is necessary not to confuse quantity with the quality of the liquid we have to guarantee healthy survival. Of the waters that cover most of our planet, 97.5% are salty; only 2.5% are sweet or drinkable. (68.9% of these fresh waters are frozen at the poles, glaciers and on the tops of mountains; almost all the rest (29.9%) are groundwater. The distribution of this 0.3% is uneven and threatening in Brazil: 70% is destined for irrigation in agriculture (mainly large export monocultures), 20% for industry, leaving only 10% for human and animal use, that is , 0.03% of the planet’s fresh water from rivers and lakes.
In the midst of analyzes and statistics, from here on Ilha do Boi Bumbá, our gaze turns to the most isolated corners (in geographic and informative terms) of this coveted region; he peers into the complacent silence of his fellow caboca, unaccustomed to the bounty of the fauna and flora; reports to each forgotten edge whose only certainty is lost in the volume of rivers, lakes and streams, sometimes the only source of survival and other times, a threatening phenomenon. With so many problematizing mirages, reality becomes opaque and enigmatic.
And while our regional monologue prevails in relation to the grievances that afflict Amazonian relatives, terrorism regarding the scarcity of water, trumpeted only under the axis of quantity in cubic meters, assails us, omitting the real on the quality factor. Around here, it goes unnoticed that 0.03% of the planet’s drinking water, intended for human and animal consumption, in addition to poisoning by chemical fertilizers and agricultural pesticides from agribusiness, has a portion already contaminated by mining companies, including heavy metals. What about government priorities, in favor of exporting agribusiness (soy, meat, cellulose, corn…), of mega-mining companies, threatening the right to life and transforming a common good into a financial product? Who will pay for the damage?…
Fátima Guedes is a popular educator and researcher of traditional knowledge of the Amazon. Graduated in Letters from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), she has a specialization in Latin American Studies from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) in partnership with the Florestan Fernandes National School (ENFF) in Guararema (SP). She is also the founder of the Parintins Women’s Association, of the Parintins Citizen and Militant Articulation of the World March of Women.
