World Water Day: Deadly plight of Brazil’s river defenders goes unheard
While presidents, royalty and corporate dignitaries gave speeches at a global conference in Brasil’s federal capital this week on the need to protect water sources, river defender Ageu Lobo Pereira was running for his life through the Amazon forest.
The head of the riverine communities of Montanha e Mangbal had been tipped off that assassins were preparing an ambush. They wanted to end his resistance to mines, deforestation and dams that threaten the Tapajós river.
It was not the first narrow escape. Two of his friends, Francisco Firmino da Silva and Pedro Braga da Silva, have also been on the hitlist of a notorious local businessman since they allied with indigenous groups to demarcate their territory.
The authorities have been notified of the attacks. Police know the name of the mafia-like boss who wants them dead. The community leaders have requested guards from a federal protection programme. But so far, the law has been absent, leaving the villagers vulnerable to more violent, economically powerful and environmentally destructive forces.
The case – which was related to the Guardian ahead of World Water Day on Thursday – highlights one of the biggest problems facing conservation: impunity and a lack of protection for water defenders in traditional communities.
The subject has received little attention at this week’s World Water Forum, the pre-eminent global talking shop for management of sanitation, drinking supplies, hydropower, irrigation, watershed management and a host of other related issues.
Tens of thousands of statesmen, corporate executives, investors, government officials, engineers, academics and NGO representatives have gathered in Brasilia for this triannual event, which aims to push forward the UN goal of providing clean water and sanitation to everyone on the planet by 2030.
There is a growing sense of urgency. A UN report on Monday warned that 5 billion people could face water stresses in the coming decades as a result climate change, pollution and rising demand.
At the an opening of the conference, Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, said the world must race to avert disastrous loss of water supplies. “There is simply no time to lose,” he said.
Yet in Brazil, the world’s most water-rich country, hundreds of cities face drought and many more communities are afflicted by contamination of supplies, while those that try to defend these resources are often murdered or criminalised.
These concerns are raised at an alternative forum in the park outside the main conference hall, where representatives of riverine and indigenous communities have joined workshop and discussions with anti-fracking campaigners, anti-dam groups and opponents of water privatisation.
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