Fulgêncio Manoel da Silva was
murdered on 16 October, 1997 in Santa Maria da Boa Vista in the backlands
of Pernambuco state in northeast Brazil. Da Silva was a farmer, a poet,
and a passionate fighter for dam-affected people. He was also the person
responsible for the addition of the words "For Rivers, Water and
Life" to the International Day of Action Against Dams.
In an interview at the First International Meeting of People Affected by
Dams, held in Curitiba, Brazil in March 1997, da Silva told International Rivers:
My goal is that the world, not
just Brazil, study ways to produce electricity without flooding lands,
rivers, the environment; and without affecting the life of the people...
We are supporting the proposal for an international day of struggle for
the rivers, water, and life because we support life - of people, of
animals, and the rivers and water.
Da Silva was one of 40,000 people
forced to make way for the Itaparica Dam, built on the S�o Francisco
River on the border of Pernambuco and Bahia states. Not long after he
learned his family would lose their land, he met a family of beggars
living under a bridge who had been displaced by a dam but were once
farmers like him. It was this experience, he said, that moved him to
organize the Itaparica families.
Da Silva says there were many
devastating impacts from the project. It halted agricultural production
for seven years, and after that time, the production was not half of what
is was before the dam. This has had a great impact on the area and the
people. The native vegetation and crop trees such as bananas, coconut,
oranges and mangoes were submerged, rotting along with the barrels of
agrotoxins that weren’t removed before inundation.
The cultural effects of the dam have been devastating. According to da
Silva, the customs and cultures of the people were drowned with the rivers
and waterfalls. "I don’t feel any dam has yet provided fair
compensation for the affected people," he said. "Just
compensation will never take place because the destruction of the
environment, the destruction of the history of the people and of their
lives, the history of where they were born and lived - there is not enough
money in the world to pay for this."
It is suspected that the killing of da Silva was ordered by drug
traffickers operating in the resettlement communities. The Brazilian
Movement of Dam-Affected People (MAB), blames his murder on the deplorable
social conditions resulting from inadequate compensation for the dam
oustees. "This," said MAB, "generated the conditions which
led to this type of criminality, where families plant marijuana as a means
of survival. Money from the World Bank never reached the small farmers,
but instead was used to irrigate drug plantations."
"Political action," said Aurelio Vianna of the Brazil Network on
Multilateral Financial Institutions, "was not merely an ideological
question for Fulgêncio, but a question of honor."
In one of his poems, Fulgêncio wrote "The river is our life-water.
What we do with it affects the life of the people, the life of the
animals, the life of the river, and the life of the waters. This is true
for the world, not just for Brazil."
His work has not been in vain. On 14 March, for the International Day of
Action Against Dams and FOR RIVERS, WATER, AND LIFE, we hold his spirit
and his beliefs in a place of honor in our actions and in our hearts.
Additional Information
For further information, please contact:
Day of Action Coordinator
International Rivers
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703 USA
Phone: +1 510-848-1155
Fax: +1 510-848-1008
E-mail: dayofaction [at] internationalrivers [dot] org'
