Produzindo águas novas: iniciativas públicas e estratégias camponesas de lidar com a escassez de água no Jequitinhonha mineiro

Abstract

Since 2013 the Jequitinhonha mine valley faces a critical drought period that has synthesized the shortage of years of intermittent rainfall and / or concentrated rainfall over short periods. Although it is a region that coexists historically with the irregularity of precipitation, in this period the situation has taken acute dimensions. Family farmers in this region highlighted the severity and characteristics that marked this drought in relation to annual dry periods: duration (longer), very little rain and a reduction or drying of water sources more intensely. The objective of this article is to analyze initiatives, mainly of the public authorities, but also of civil society, to supply rural communities in a period of drought and or in practices of conviviality with the semi-arid. It seeks to examine the various "voices" present in these public initiatives, their articulation with productive and reproductive strategies of family farmer communities and their impacts on the environment. It is the result of field research conducted in the Jequitinhonha mine valley between 2013 and 2015. The results indicate that, despite the environmental and climatic dimension of the drought, the way the scarcity affected the rural population had powerful social filters. And part of these filters has a strong link with public water management.