ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-BRAZIL: 9.5 Million Facing Hunger Caused by Drought

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 2 1998 (IPS) - Drought has brought the spectre of hunger over some 9.5 million people in Brazil’s impoverished northeastern region, where hungry crowds have started to loot supermarkets and warehouses.

The drought, and the fires that raged out of control for several months in the Amazon region, have been attributed to the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has been heating up the waters of the Pacific ocean. The dought is the worst to hit the region since a previous “Giant Nino” back in 1983, according to the climatic studies centre of the Sao Paulo Institute of Space Research.

The government decided to distribute basic food products in the hardest-hit areas, after the Superintendency for Development of the Northeast (SUDENE) released a report indicating that 70 percent of the municipaities in the area were in a critical situation due to the scarcity of water.

Rainfall from February to April stood at half the normal average, and at only 35 percent in Pernambuco, the state hardest hit, the National Meteorological Institute reported.

The semi-arid northeast is Brazil’s poorest region. Home to around 45 million of the country’s 160 million inhabitants, the area provides the rest of the country with cheap, unskilled labour, with flows of migrants becoming heavier in times of drought.

Inhabitants of the rural areas of the states of Ceara and Pernambuco have borne the brunt of the drought, with small farmers losing the lion’s share of their harvests and livestock. Looting has been reported in 13 cities in Ceara.

When the looting started, the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Supply Company asked for army protection and for a reduction of the stocks in its warehouses.

But Roman Catholic Bishop Orlando Dotti said the military should be sent in “to distribute food to the people” rather than to defend property. A well-known member of the progressive branch of Brazil’s clergy, Dotti defended the right to loot “in extreme cases of hunger.”

Speaking at the General Assembly of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference, which opened last Wednesday in Indaiatuba, 100 kms from Sao Paulo, the bishop argued that the Catholic Church’s social doctrine admitted stealing as a last resort, when survival was at stake. He pointed out that over 15 centuries ago, Saint Thomas of Aquinas argued that the right to life took priority over the right to property.

The Conference, which criticised the government’s slowness to act, sent a letter to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso demanding urgent assistance for the families facing hunger in the northeast. Dotti argued that fighting poverty was a government responsibility.

A similar position was adopted by bishops considered conservative, who tend to be little inclined towards social issues and criticism of the government.

Conservative and moderate bishops like Amaury Castanho, whose diocese is located on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, said “stealing to eat, in cases of hunger” was admitted by Christian doctrine, according to which goods became commonly owned in the case of extreme necessity.

The Movement of Landless Workers (MST), which lobbies for agrarian reform by invading land left idle and occupying government bodies, also expressed its support for the looting, if the government failed to adopt immediate measures.

The government has decided to distribute basic food products in close to 500 municipalities in May and another 500 in June. The secretary of Regional Policies, Fernando Catao, who recognised the emergency situation, said the programme was aimed at assisting 979,000 families – nearly five million persons – at an estimated cost of around 120 million dollars.

SUDENE also recommended on-going action, such as drilling thousands of artesian wells and building dams to improve the exploitation of available water.