On Sunday morning (10), about 300 women from the Terra Nossa encampment, organized by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST, in Portuguese), occupied an area controlled by the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valley Development Company (Codevasf, in Portuguese) in the rural area of Juazeiro, northern Bahia state.
According to the movement, the occupation is a way to pressure the federal government and other authorities to regularize the situation of the encampment where families have been living.
One of the initiative’s leaders, who asked for anonymity, said the encampment has been without water for almost a year. The Terra Nossa encampment was installed in April last year and, according to the person Brasil de Fato talked with, “has no access to water to produce, while there is a 51 hectares private water reservoir in front of the encampment,” the person said regarding the Codevast area.
The MST affirms that, since 2008, there has been an agreement signed between Codevasf, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra, in Portuguese), the federal government and the movement to settle 1,000 families. However, according to the movement, only 192 families were settled and not much more than 5,500 hectares of land were regularized.
“We are in Terra Nossa with more than 300 families without access to water to produce [food]. We want land, but we also want water to grow food,” said the leadership.
“The production of healthy food is fundamental to satisfy the hunger of Brazil's population. Therefore, our task here is to put this topic on the agenda, particularly the democratization of access to water. We will continue fighting for our bodies and territories,” the leader added.
Brasil de Fato ed Codevasf and Incra. In response, Codevasf said "The water available in the Salitre Public Irrigation Project (Bahia state) is intended for farmers who are regularly installed in the project. Most of the producers served by the project are family farmers: 255 family producers and 68 business producers working on 5,100 hectares. The grant issued by the regulatory agency is specific to water use in the Salitre Project." Regarding the possible agreement signed in 2008 to settle the landless families, the company did not respond.
According to the MST, the action was part of the “March of Struggles” mobilization, which refers to March 8, International Women’s Day. On Friday (8), landless women all around Brazil attended protests. In the city of São Paulo, about 200 women from the MST carried out a manifestation in front of the Conceito AMTT store, a dealer for Taurus and CBC arms and some cartridge companies.
