Bringing Water and Hope to Brazil's Backlands

Brazil's Million Cisterns Project has become an important
component of Brazilian President Lula's Zero Hunger campaign.
MCP has inspired many other organizations to participate in the
funding and/or construction of cisterns, relieving some pressure
from pursuing lofty goals with severely limited resources.

Phillip Wagner

A cistern
Although Brazil accounts for 8 percent of all fresh water in the world, the expansive dry regions of northeastern Brazil account for only 3 percent of the Brazilian total, or less than one quarter of 1 percent of the world's fresh water. Access to water in interior Brazil is complicated by a lack of infrastructure.

In the state of Bahia, for example, "There are 417 towns and cities, and a quarter of them have no paved links" a trade association representative was quoted as saying in the American Chambers of Commerce February, 2004 edition of Update.

Even the major roads are often all but impassable. The bus I took from Bahia's capital had two flats on a major highway pocked with moonscape-like craters.

In Bahia's semi-arid caatinga, Senhor do Bonfim is a small town seat representing the Bonfim Catholic diocese. The Medical Missionaries of Mary and a cistern building project they have undertaken are supported by Trócaire, the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Trócaire, which is Irish-Gaelic for `compassion' was established by the Irish Catholic Bishops in 1973 "to express the concern of the Irish Church for the suffering of the world's poorest and most oppressed people".

Água, Saúde e Vida, or ASV, which means Water, Health and Life is the name of the cistern building project in the Capim Grosso region. The Medical Missionaries frequently collaborate with organizations like a regional institute known as IRPAA (Instituto Regional da Pequena Agropecuária Apropriada—Regional Institute for Appropriate Small-scale Farming), through which small farmers receive resource management guidance, especially related to the region's most precious resource: water.

IRPAA advises that "special attention must be paid to the provision of water for the population and for agricultural needs" given the irregularity of rainfall, the fact that there are few ground water reserves and considering that the evaporation rate sometimes exceeds precipitation.

Update noted that almost half of Bahia's 13 million inhabitants live in the "two thirds of its territory (that is) semi-arid land—where extreme poverty and drought are widespread". Family cisterns are being constructed throughout the region to capture and store the precious little precipitation that falls there.

The Million Cisterns Project

Million Cisterns Project, or MCP, is the cistern building glamour-tag in Brazil, and has become an important component of President Lula's Fome Zero, or Zero Hunger, campaign. MCP has inspired many other organizations to participate in the funding and/or construction of cisterns, relieving some pressure from pursuing lofty goals with severely limited resources.

MCP sometimes appears to be more virtual than real, blending into its surroundings while relentlessly pursuing ways to help identify and prioritize candidate recipients, procure funds, and oversee construction. Little by little the job is getting done.

MCP seeks out regional non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, through which to work. It works through the Catholic Church in Bahia to leverage existing functional organizational structures and leadership with prior experience; all MCP cistern construction in the Bonfim diocese is coordinated through the diocese. But the formal MCP undertaking accounts for only a portion of the work associated with its initiative.

Progress to Date

Comprehensive cistern building data is not commonly gathered or maintained. MCP field representative Junivan Matos dos Santos says MCP constructed 623 cisterns in two Bonfim diocese municipalities, including Capim Grosso, with funding from SECOMP (Secretaria de Combate à Pobreza e às Desigualdades Sociais—Secretariat for Combating Poverty and Social Inequities).

Junivan was able to say that 2,157 cisterns were constructed in all 22 municipalities of the Bonfim diocese that are administered out of Bonfim. That figure does not include cisterns constructed under other administrative authorities.

The cisterns the Medical Missionaries are constructing, for example, are administered by the local parish because the Medical Missionaries are independent of the Bonfim diocese and have objectives which surpass the MCP goal of constructing cisterns to collect and store rainwater.

The driving force behind Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) cistern work in the region, Sister Joana Corkery, said that in the general vicinity of the Capim Grosso municipality MMM/ASV is building 80 cisterns in the 2003/2004 timeframe.

In the 2001/2002 timeframe MMM/ASV constructed 40 cisterns. The Million Cisterns Project (MCP) is in the process of constructing 30 additional cisterns in the Capim Grosso municipality, in cooperation with MMM.

A European Foundation (Mãos Unidos—Joined Hands) has funded 446 cisterns in the Bonfim diocese. Caritas, a Catholic social-action organization, has been another funding source. Sometimes the municipalities themselves are the primary funding source. Multiple sources sometimes collaborate to fund a common group of cisterns.

Cisterns built under the direction of the state Agricultural School are also not included among the 2,157 administered by the Bonfim diocese. The nationwide ecumenical philanthropic organization known as CESE is yet another conduit through which external funding sources deliver capital to fund cistern building.

With so many organizations working sometimes individually and sometimes in collaboration with one another, and administered from different places where information is gathered and maintained in different ways, it's impossible to know exactly how many cisterns have been, are being, and still need to be built. But it's clear that the end is not in sight. Bahia alone is the size of France.

The Trócaire / Medical Missionaries Model

Sister Joana Corkery advised me that "Medical Missionaries focuses on care of the mother and child. So we'll work on whatever helps them, and especially when it involves health. A lot of that work here is around water and sanitation. Constructing cisterns is one way we do that". MCP's objective, by contrast, is purely building cisterns to catch and hold rainwater.

"We established our (program) on the basis of addressing the health of the people" said Joana. "A mother that no longer has to spend hours each day foraging for water is less tired, and is more able to look after her children. When she doesn't have to walk for miles and miles to collect water she can be more civil. So we build cisterns on a number of factors although, of course, most basically that the water is clean".

In the Capim Grosso municipality both MCP and Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) prosecute the planning, construction and oversight of cisterns, consistent with the Trócaire/MMM model. MCP adoption of that approach there derives from the fact that Junivan was an original member of the Trócaire sponsored MMM project before becoming an MCP field representative.

Both MCP and MMM prioritize cistern candidate selection based on a range of factors, including the presence of handicapped individuals, the number of children, the distance that must be covered to forage for water, etc.

Testimonials

"A woman told me just recently that for years and years she'd had stomach pain, but since they'd got a cistern it stopped", said Joana. "She isn't sure if the pain abated because she no longer walks such great distances for water or whether it is because now the water is clean".

Another woman said she used to have to pass (each way/each day) through five barbed wire fences to collect water. And still another just smiled at Joana and said, "It (the cistern) is like my mother, she's always there when I need her".

Joana believes the woman that suffered from stomach pains may have been ingesting parasites from contaminated water. "But the parasites wouldn't just go away by themselves would they?" I asked. No she said, "But the people here take a lot of natural medicines, like aloe vera with another leaf known by the regional name of tioiou, and that combination is very good for the expulsion of vermin. We talk about a form of slavery" said Joana.

"And you know its liberating women from a kind of drudgery and slavery that is just such hard work and so negatively impacts their health. That's where we come from in terms of thinking about making cisterns".

Planning, Process and Ownership

The Medical Missionaries fear that cisterns will be built without doing all that's necessary to ensure that results will be effective. "Cistern building needs to be done systematically" Joana says. "The actual construction is only one element".

The Medical Missionaries driven program has produced a 40-page booklet that is employed by both recipients and program representatives throughout the cistern planning, construction and implementation cycle. About half of the material covers five indoctrination encounters through which cistern recipients are progressively educated about water resource management, cisterns and cistern care.

"You may say that the 80 cisterns we're building (in 2003/2004) is a very small number, and now I'm only talking about the (Trócaire supported) Medical Missionaries project, but we use that opportunity to get into the countryside in order to help educate the people around issues of health. We're not rushing the construction, and we want to keep that space open for as long as we need to". One reason is to address responsibility and ownership issues.

"When we construct a cistern, it's not a gift," says Joana. "We build it and finance it, but the recipients have to pay back 50 percent of the cost of the materials for constructing the cistern over a two-year period". The simple donation of a cistern, she insisted, is insufficient to promote independence because the recipients won't own it. "It's a gift that they won't have any involvement in".

"We don't ask them to reimburse anything for the actual cost of construction," she added. On the morning of my interview the current cost of cisterns constructed by the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) was averaged at 724 reais (US$ 241) and 150 (US$ 48) of that was for labor. So a current MMM cistern recipient is obligated to repay 287 reais, about US$ 93, over two years.

Bonfim diocese MCP cistern construction cost data varies upward from the Medical Missionaries figures. MCP administered-through-Bonfim cisterns may more frequently be an improved version of cisterns recently developed in a series of tests at a seminar in Feira de Santana.

Cement used to construct the stronger new version dries in four days, compared with the six that had previously been needed. MCP-administered-through-Bonfim cisterns may also have a greater average capacity. The cisterns I examined held between 4,000 and 16,000 liters of water.

MCP averages their cost of materials, excluding labor, at 810 reais, compared to 576 for MMM. So the overall cost of an MCP administered-through-Bonfim cistern is approximately 960 reais, about US$ 310. That's 236 reais, or about US$ 76, more than the overall cost of a MMM cistern.

Bearing the Burden of Ownership

That afternoon I visited a number of cisterns that had been constructed in the Capim Grosso municipality. Some were MMM program constructed cisterns, others were not. One small casa I visited was home to two adults and nine children subsisting on a weekly income of about 15 reais (US$ 5) that the man of the house earned as a day-laborer.

That amounts to an annual income of 780 reais, or about US$ 252, which is only slightly more than the overall cost of a MMM constructed cistern.

It seemed inconceivable to me that this family could repay half the cost of materials over a two-year period. But Joana assured me that deadline extensions are granted in such cases.

And she added, "They don't have to pay us back in money. They can pay in products … manioc, whatever. We're not after the money; we're after the independence and the ownership".

Any monetary repayment comes back to the MMM program at the Parish level, and is channeled into the water commission to help maintain program continuity through ongoing education, as well as to keep building cisterns. "The education factor is quite a factor" says Joana.

Based on my personal observations I would guess that a typical household includes five to seven people. The rural weekly average household income in the region probably doesn't exceed 25 or 30 reais (8 to 10 dollars). So families participating in the program are really expected to feel the pain of their commitment, which Medical Missionaries asserts is vital to securing personal ownership. A family making that kind of sacrifice won't be inclined to let their cistern go to pot.

The Medical Missionaries Approach

I asked Joana to help me better understand the process of Medical Missionaries cistern building. "We don't begin by visiting individual homes. We go to a community and ask them to determine who most needs the cisterns. The coordinator in the community will indicate the people, and then we'll bring those people together to meet.

"One of the things is that they have to be prepared to enter the process of paying back 50 percent of the cost of materials within two years. Now you, coming from the United States, might say that's pretty difficult. These people are desperately poor. But we will never learn to teach people to be independent if we just give donations.

"Poor people, who have little educational formation, have a difficult time understanding why they can't just have cisterns for a gift. And then you have to deal with the município, especially in an election year. They'll go out now and build one with, you know, no preparation of the land or of the community.

"So there's no responsibility on the part of the receiving party. They're getting it because it's a political gift to win a favor of votes. One of the things that we work very hard at here, at the level of the church, is to try to build independence. We want to avoid building more need. We want to help people to become independent."

When pressed to say what impact the Medical Missionaries presence was having Joana related the following folktale, author unknown:

"There was a fire in the forest and all the bigger animals were running away: the jaguars, the large snakes, the monkeys, the wolves, the tapir and so on, with their offspring, heading for the mountains. And so the hummingbird went to a nearby puddle of water and took a little drop of water and came and put it on the fire.

"So all the animals began to laugh you know and say, the poor bird has no sense, he doesn't know what he's doing. Finally, one of the animals stopped to ask the hummingbird what it thought it was going to achieve, and the bird said, well, I'm doing my part. So the story goes that if everybody did their part, the world would be better and the weak would be made strong".

SPECIAL NOTES

Joana Corkery joined the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1967, spent 18 years in Nigeria, served in Rwanda during the massacres, and has been in Brazil for nine years.

More About Trócaire

Trócaire envisages a just world where people's dignity is ensured, rights are respected and basic needs are met; where there is equity in the sharing of resources and people are free to be the authors of their own development.

Trócaire was given a dual mandate: to support long-term development projects overseas and to provide relief during emergencies; and at home to inform the Irish public about the root causes of poverty and injustice and mobilize the public to bring about global change.

Trócaire draws its inspiration from Scripture and the social teaching of the Catholic Church. The agency strives to promote human development and social justice in line with Gospel values.

Its work is also influenced by the experiences and the hopes of the poor and oppressed. Trócaire supports communities in their efforts to improve their lives, meet their basic needs and ensure their human dignity. This support is offered regardless of race, gender, religion or politics and in a spirit of solidarity.

In its role as an advocate for the poor, Trócaire raises public awareness in Ireland of poverty and injustice. It analyses the causes of poverty and mobilizes the Irish public to campaign to bring about global change.

This action is undertaken in a bid to improve the lives of the world's poorest and most oppressed citizens in line with the principles of social justice.

Trócaire is the agency that supports Medical Missionaries of Mary.

Junivan Matos dos Santos helped establish Trócaire and later began to represent MCP specifically.

Special thanks to AEC-TEA volunteer Audra Abt, from Ohio, who provided translator services in Capim Grosso.

Phillip Wagner is a frequent contributor to Brazzil magazine. His current focus is preparing to pursue graduate studies at Indiana University in September of 2004, with a regional focus on Brazil. He has been in Brazil improving his Portuguese and working with social programs.

He is a volunteer Campaign Associate for Oakland, California based Nourish the New Brazil, which supports President Lula's national zero hunger initiative. He is also the volunteer Bahia Program Development Director for the Rio based Iko Poran volunteer placement organization and a member of the advisory board for the Didá project.

Phillip maintains an extensive website at http://www.iei.net/~pwagner/brazilhome.htm and can be reached at pwagner@iei.net.