Itaparica Peasants protest against Codevasf
A Nova Democracia reported that thousands of peasants were protesting against Codevasf in Floresta, Petrolândia and Belém do São Francisco in the Sertão do São Francisco, in Pernambuco.
The Itaparica Project is a group of 10 settlements created to house the population that was displaced from the areas that were flooded by the Itaparica dam in the late 1980s. In total, there are 10 settlements, 6 in Pernambuco and 4 in Bahia. However, these settlements suffer from constant water and energy shortages, which affect their 25,000 residents.
The São Francisco Hydroelectric Company (Chesf) stopped providing the necessary resources for the settlements, because the administration of the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valley Development Company (Codevasf) did not pay, what caused the recent protests.
In Petrolândia, workers protested against on the morning of Monday, August 12. Around 2,000 protesters occupied the Eixo Leste da Tranposição do São Francisco and turned off the water pumps.
In Floresta, in the early hours of August 16, workers opened the floodgates of a dam, releasing thousands of cubic meters of water, what benefited dozens of peasant families who were without water supply in the region.
In Belém do São Francisco, workers closed the roads at the Ibó Interchange, interrupting BRs 316, 116 and 428. They are demanding that water and energy supplies be reestablished for irrigation of plantations in the settlements, in addition to modernizing the irrigation system. The protest began at 6 am on August 17 and lasted until around 4 pm. Around 400 protesters participated in the event.
