Por um estado de direito ambiental: o poder, a política e o direito em face da transposição das águas do Rio do São Francisco

Abstract

The discussion of the transposition of the waters of the Sao Francisco river or, in governmental parlance, the Project for the integration of the Sao Francisco River into the northernmost part of the Northeast basins , has turned into a commitment to eradicate the poverty that ravages the northeast semi-arid region. It overlooks, however, the serious studies required to avoid the environmental risks inherent in the implementation of a project of such scope. The defrayal and the difficulties, not only in carrying out the transposition, by means of canals that will carry the water over long distances into the States of Paraiba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará, as well as the maintenance outlays related to the activities of transposition, will cost huge amounts of money, which make it advisable to seek alternatives that will lead to sustained development, while, at the same time, consider its real necessity, since there is confirmed data that the receiving regions possess excellent water potential, which would turn this undertaking into a huge waste of public money. The process to attain the implementation of this undertaking helps to understand, in a way, the dynamics of power in Brazil, in which Politics and Law making get mixed in a way that makes it transparent the existence of a state of exception in which post-modern society lives. The Project, here under scrutiny, incorporates many violations of the law, which do not satisfy the new expectations of men. Therefore, the necessity arises to create new questions for a new State, concerned with an environmentally sustained cultural and social development