"We were excluded from drought management."

PE247 - The drought relief measures announced by President Dilma Rousseff (PT), totaling more than R$ 9 billion, did not have the immediate effect desired by most governors and mayors in the Northeast, who are facing the worst drought in the last 50 years. The package includes renegotiation of farmers' debts, acquisition of agricultural machinery and equipment, purchase of corn for animal feed, and reinforcement of military units involved in addressing the problem, among other actions. But what was really expected by the administrators – money in the accounts of states and municipalities – will hardly arrive quickly or effectively.

Although the funds were received as a much-needed relief, managers' calculations indicate that the immediate impacts, considered fundamental to alleviating the calamitous situation in which the Region finds itself, will be less than expected.

While governors awaited amnesty for the debts of farmers and ranchers who lost all or almost all of their herds and crops – Pernambuco alone lost half of its 2,1 million head of cattle – the federal government opted to renegotiate the debts. Therefore, R$ 3,1 billion cannot be counted as investments. The acquisition of agricultural machinery and equipment to be sent to municipalities, totaling R$ 2,1 billion, is only expected to begin arriving at the end of the year, when the worst of the drought is expected to have passed and the rainy season has begun.

The Minister of Agrarian Development himself, Pepe Vargas, who is from Rio Grande do Sul, announced the delivery deadline for the equipment, which will only begin to leave the factories between November and December. Since the factories are located in the South and Southeast, the resources used to acquire the machines will ultimately benefit the producing states, diverting essential resources from the states and municipalities. And with many municipalities practically bankrupt, either due to drought or the reduction in transfers from the Municipal Participation Fund (FPM), caused by the tax exemption on the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI), one of the main components of the FPM, the lack of these resources will be felt even when these materials are received, as new expenses will arise for maintenance and fuel, for example. The resources allocated to improve the performance of Army units and for the acquisition of corn for animal consumption also do not directly go to the municipalities. In that case alone, more than R$ 450 million is lost.

Drilling wells and reservoirs is another dilemma. Estimates indicate that 1,4 wells have been recovered so far, when another 1,1 would need to be drilled. The situation is similar with cisterns. In just over a year, 270 cisterns for consumption and about 12 for production have been installed, when another 240 units would need to be installed by the end of this year. For 2014, another 750 cisterns would have to be delivered.

Although he considers the resources promised by the Government to be fundamental, the president of the Pernambuco Municipal Association (Amupe), José Patriota, demanded more immediate measures to combat the drought. Among these measures would be the streamlining of the process for allocating funds to municipalities, with the creation of a fund similar to the one created by the governor of Pernambuco, Eduardo Campos (PSB), where resources are deposited directly into municipal accounts. This issue had been previously discussed with the Minister of National Integration, Fernando Bezerra Coelho, who reportedly stated during an event in Recife that President Dilma would be responsible for making this announcement, which ultimately did not happen. 

“The direct funding he announced disappeared from the agenda. He created expectations about this support, which was initially supposed to be announced during the president's visit to Serra Talhada, but it wasn't. Then they said it would be announced today (yesterday), and that didn't happen either,” Patriota told Jornal do Commercio. According to him, the municipalities were excluded from managing the drought relief efforts, receiving only machinery and equipment, such as water trucks and backhoes. “We are frustrated because we were excluded from drought management. Marginalized. Why give the Army the power to build when the municipalities could do this work?” he observes.