Bolsonaro inaugurates stretch of São Francisco river diversion project
President Jair Bolsonaro today (Feb. 8) attended the inauguration ceremony of a new stretch in the São Francisco river diversion project. He was in the city of Salgueiro, Pernambuco state, for the delivery of the Operational Control Center for the Integration of the São Francisco River, in charge of pumping water from the river to the states of Ceará, Paraíba, and Rio Grande do Norte.
Installation began back in 2014. The facility covers the control of IT networks, pumping stations and substations, and water management in both North and East sections of the project.
In Salgueiro, Bolsonaro visited a pumping station that brings water to Rio Grande do Norte state. The works should help improve the living conditions of local residents.
“You can only fully grasp what’s been done here if you really see it,” said the president, who believes the works will do more than just “spare funds from tax collection.” Rather, he pointed out, the water brought to those areas as part of the river diversion project will make tank trunks redundant.
Reality
Regional Development Minister Rogério Marinho described the São Francisco diversion enterprise as “a source of pride for Brazilians.”
“We’re allowing people in the Northeast to have the tools to transform their reality,” he stated, adding that, in the last few years, some of the works were halted and had to be resumed so as to finish the diversion process.
“We did the calculations and concluded that a number of past interventions had to be reversed. In at least eight cases, crumbling dams had to be rebuilt, along with abandoned, dried-up canals, and poorly constructed tunnels that collapsed,” he added.
After Salgueiro, the president proceeded to the town of Jati, in Ceará. There, he is expected to visit the Jati dam, a 56-meter high structure with a capacity to store up to 28 million cubic meters of water.
On the occasion, water will be released from the structure to reach the Cinturão de Águas do Ceará, which has not received water from the São Francisco since May 2021, when equipment underwent repair and replacement for a revamp.
According to the Ministry of Regional Development, the operation to fill up the dam was triggered in June 2020, allowing waters to reach other areas in the state, among them the metropolitan area of Fortaleza.
