À margem de Irapé: uma década de legados e conseqüências da barragem do Rio Jequitinhonha

Abstract

The significance of a great developmentalist project to the population of municipalities hit by the hydroelectric plant of Irapé ten years after the beginning of its operation was the study object of this dissertation. The area flooded by the Irapé plant reached seven municipalities of the Jequitinhonha river upper course, northeast of Minas Gerais, resulting in the relocation of approximately five thousand people and affecting thousands more living by the lake shore. The long resistance process of the affected population achieved fundamental rights throughout the relocation course; however, it did not impede the great socioeconomic, cultural and political losses that happened during the violent implantation, which sought to legitimize itself by the fact of the promotion in the affected regions. The enterprise legacies and its consequences after a decade of its operation were based on quantitative data and qualitative methodology. The legacies were considered the financial transfers from the power plant to the seven municipalities - financial compensation - and the ICMS (Brazilian tax on the circulation of goods, interstate and intercity transportation and communication services), levied by Grão Mogol. The consequences were considered those pointed out by interviews with representatives from different society sectors (public authorities, development agents, former commission of affected ones, rural workers, etc.). The generation analysis of revenue for the municipalities in the last four years showed a sharp drop regarding the power production capacity of the plant. These financial funding have decreased, over a decade, their proportion in relation to other municipal revenue sources such as the Municipalities Participation Fund, and it also presents low value if compared to the income transfer from Bolsa Família and also from the rural retirement. The consequences caused by Irapé are diverse and complex, the dam changed the population's relations with natural resources, frustrated different societal segments in terms of job creation, income and tourism, and strongly pressured ways of life into peasant communities.