Surveying a field of 50,000 green peppers, Daniel de Almeida proudly explains how he “produces” all the water needed by crops and livestock on his farm on the outskirts of Brasilia, a city about to end water rationing after a severe drought.
De Almeida is one of 1,200 farmers across Brazil supported by a government-run program that improves infrastructure on their land to boost groundwater and conserve water sources.
When water rationing was introduced in Brazil’s Federal District more than a year ago, De Almeida continued to water his crops and animals from a river source on his property.
Illustration: Yusha
“Those who did not preserve the springs, restore native areas, replant or have a protected green area suffered in the drought,” De Almeida said, adding that farmers were not permitted to draw water from the river.
“But here, thank God, we went through the drought with water in abundance,” De Almeida told reporters on his 28 hectare property in Planaltina, Federal District, as steers grazed behind him.
World water supplies are under pressure as the planet warms and demand grows with the population, the UN says.
About 16 percent of Brazil’s 5,570 cities face water scarcity, Ministry of National Integration data shows.
In the Federal District, where Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, is located, water supplies were restored to normal on Friday last week — a date brought forward from December.
Water shortages in the district have been caused by low rainfall and compounded by rapid, unplanned urban growth.
However, an expanded system to supply water from the Bananal River and Paranoa Lake has plugged the gap, Governor Rodrigo Rollemberg said last month, when announcing last week’s end to rationing.
By December, an additional 2,800 litres of water per second is to be provided to the Federal District’s 3 million people, and the same amount to the surrounding state of Goias, Rollemberg said.
People’s efforts to save water, cutting consumption by 12 to 13 percent, and changes to farm irrigation methods have also been key to ending water restrictions, he said.
“From now on we will use this precious good in a much more rational way,” he added.
WATER MANAGEMENT
Global demand for water is expected to increase by nearly one-third by 2050, when 5 billion people could be left with poor access to water, a report published by the UN in March said.
To avoid scarcity, it recommended “nature-based solutions” that use or mimic natural processes to boost water availability.
Those include adapting farming practices so that soil retains more moisture and nutrients, harvesting rainwater, and conserving wetlands that capture runoff and decontaminate water.
In Brazil, structural changes on farms to increase groundwater are vital as about 60 percent of the country’s fresh water is used for crop and livestock production, said the ANA, the nation’s water agency.
Careless use of water by agribusiness can trigger negative environmental effects across a river basin — including reduced flow in streams and rivers, and water degradation — and stoke water-related disputes, the agency said.
Investing in construction works to prevent erosion on rural properties, and treating effluents and sewage help preserve hydrological basins, said the agency, which runs a countrywide “water producer” program.
It encourages farmers to adopt good practices that preserve the environment and increase water supplies.
The agency leads 57 water-production projects across Brazil, covering 400,000 hectares and benefiting about 35 million people.
The actions that it promotes range from constructing sandbars and small dams that channel and capture excess water to reforesting rural properties.
The agency has invested US$11 million in the projects, while about US$42 million has been injected by organizations that benefit from the resulting boost to water, including local governments and companies running water and sanitation services.
PAID TO PROTECT
Participating farmers such as De Almeida, who agree to carry out the interventions, are paid a yearly allowance.
The amount varies according to the modifications and preservation methods used to improve water supplies.
The program invests in practical measures on farms, including building terraces and ditches, adapting rural roads, rehabilitating springs, tree-planting and conserving forest.
On De Almeida’s property, the funding has enabled contour farming and terracing, as well as planting saplings in the area around the river source, where no economic activity is allowed.
The program also encourages farmers to adopt sustainable practices, such as agroforestry where trees are planted alongside crops.
“We do a mixed cultivation of corn and grass,” De Almeida said. “I plant corn to make silage, which feeds the animals in the dry season, and in the rainy season we have pasture.”
De Almeida’s farm receives financial support from government-run water utility Caesb, which funds the Pipiripau river basin program in Planaltina, one of the most important vegetable-producing areas in the Federal District.
On another farm in Planaltina, about 55km from Brasilia, the program planted 8,000 native cerrado trees, a savanna-like ecosystem, in an area where cattle used to graze freely near a river source.
“We noticed an increase in the amount of water infiltrating the soil. We also saw the water source being filled more every year,” farmer Thiago Kaiser said.
That inspired his family to plant 4,000 more trees, and grow another 4,000 saplings from seed.
Caesb said that building a closer relationship with farmers and supporting their water conservation efforts has helped limit the water crisis in the region.
As a result of the program in the Pipiripau basin, 360,000 seedlings have been planted, 134km of roads improved, about 1,000 water retention basins built and about 200 others rehabilitated.
The Federal District government has invested about 10 million Brazilian reais (US$2.7 million) in the project since 2012, of which Caesb paid about 2 million reais to about 185 farmers.
On De Almeida’s farm, the improvements made under the project cost about 30,000 reais, the farmer said.
“It’s well worth it,” he added.
In a meeting with Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste on Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) vowed to continue providing aid to Haiti. Taiwan supports Haiti with development in areas such as agriculture, healthcare and education through initiatives run by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF). The nation it has established itself as a responsible, peaceful and innovative actor committed to global cooperation, Jean-Baptiste said. Testimonies such as this give Taiwan a voice in the global community, where it often goes unheard. Taiwan’s reception in Haiti also contrasts with how China has been perceived in countries in the region
On April 13, I stood in Nanan (南安), a Bunun village in southern Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪), absorbing lessons from elders who spoke of the forest not as backdrop, but as living presence — relational, sacred and full of spirit. I was there with fellow international students from National Dong Hwa University (NDHU) participating in a field trip that would become one of the most powerful educational experiences of my life. Ten days later, a news report in the Taipei Times shattered the spell: “Formosan black bear shot and euthanized in Hualien” (April 23, page 2). A tagged bear, previously released
The world has become less predictable, less rules-based, and more shaped by the impulses of strongmen and short-term dealmaking. Nowhere is this more consequential than in East Asia, where the fate of democratic Taiwan hinges on how global powers manage — or mismanage — tensions with an increasingly assertive China. The return of Donald Trump to the White House has deepened the global uncertainty, with his erratic, highly personalized foreign-policy approach unsettling allies and adversaries alike. Trump appears to treat foreign policy like a reality show. Yet, paradoxically, the global unpredictability may offer Taiwan unexpected deterrence. For China, the risk of provoking the
Starting this month, young women in Denmark would be subject to conscription on the same terms as men. All Danes, regardless of gender, would be required to register for military assessment, and eligible individuals would be selected through a lottery-based draft. In addition, service time would be increased to 11 months, and conscript numbers would grow to meet national defense targets. Denmark is not alone. In the past few years, several European countries, most notably Sweden and Norway, have adopted gender-neutral conscription systems. Latvia is moving in the same direction. The war in Ukraine has accelerated this trend. Faced with the
RSS