Drought and hope in the Sertao.

The northeastern region of Brazil known as the sertão is synonymous with drought and poverty for most Brazilians. In fact, however, its average annual rainfall is twice that of productive areas in Arizona and New Mexico. An underground sea of fresh water waits to be tapped--some 4,300 cubic

The technical know-how for channeling and distributing all this water has been around for decades, and the financial means to tackle the problem have always existed. What is lacking is political will to solve the problem, an impasse has kept the so-called drought industry thriving. Against a background of artificial scarcity, a few powerful individuals profit from the poverty of the majority, with paternalism a dominant cultural trait. Illiteracy levels are high in the sertão, short-term job prospects are nil for the overwhelming majority of the rural population and malnutrition is beginning to spread.

The sertão is the most populous semi-arid region in the world. Some 10 million people live in a rural area that includes 1,209 municipalities in nine states. To date, no government has ever taken effective measures against this historic tragedy, even though severe droughts strike the region every 12 to 15 years--the last one was in 1998-1999--and moderate drought conditions are nearly always a problem. Scientists recently correlated these cycles with El Niño, which typically causes floods in the south of the country and fires in the north.

A project that would substantially alleviate the effects of drought in the northeast has been gathering dust in the drawers of Brazil's federal government for more than a decade: diverting the São Francisco River, ah idea that traces back to the beginning of last century and that has re-emerged with every drought in the area. The diversion would create a man-made channel to bring water to 2,100 kilometers of dried-up riverbeds. At least six million inhabitants would benefit from the water supply, and the project would create 1.2 million direct and indirect jobs on 333,000 newly irrigated hectares of land. With adequate water supplies, agro-industry could change the profile of the whole region. The media recently began publicizing the project and the Lula administration is consulting ecologists in an attempt to revive it.

Drought is not a problem confined to the northeastern part of the country. Its human effects spill over to the rest of Brazilian society. Since 1991, I have been researching what I call "modern forms of slavery" in Brazil. I haven't found people in shackles or public floggings; the methods used to enslave human beings today are more sophisticated, and therefore more difficult to detect and fight. Modern-day slaves work as day laborers, sugar cane cutters, rubber gatherers, charcoal burners and farm hands conned into corrupt labor relations that imply slavery through debt. The overwhelming majority of the workers are migrants and refugees from northeastern regions historically scourged by drought. People from these areas also account for a large percentage of residents in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Formal employment simply does not exist in the rural areas of the sertão. People try to make a living on small plots of cleared land. Without water, there can be no crop, no income, or anything to eat. This is the ground where the age-old plague of slavery flourishes and spreads in its modern forms, creating ah army of cheap, unskilled laborers to serve the economic system. People who have no other options will work in exchange for food or ridiculously low wages if their only alternative is to go hungry.

Ricardo Funari is a photojournalist in Brazil. He directs SocialPhotos, a cooperative of photographers that creates and distributes images documenting and addressing issues of social justice. More examples of his work can be viewed at www.photobrazil.com and www.socialphotos.com.