BRAZIL: A Brazilian bishop's hunger strike is beginning to make an international impact, reports Ciara O'Sullivan in Cabrobo, northeastern Brazil
Night has already fallen when the bishop steps out of the whitewashed chapel on a lonely hillside to say his evening mass. He has been on hunger strike for nine days and today is his birthday, also the feast day of St Francis, the patron saint of the river he is prepared to die to protect. He looks gaunt but tranquil and resolute as he leads hundreds of local people in the Sorrowful Mysteries while surrounded by priests and his increasingly worried family.
"I feel spiritually strong but physically I am weak," he said as he washed his hands and face in a basin of river water inside the chapel beforehand. "But I am prepared to give my life for the life of the river."
Bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio (59) was born in São Paulo but has spent the past 30 years working with the people of the Sertao, a region of dry scrub-land in the northeast of Brazil. He has dedicated his life to working with the six million poor who live along the São Francisco river - a river he and many others claim is now dying due to years of neglect and is not suitable for a proposed controversial project.
"The humble people of this river live from it, and it from them. If it dies, they die," he said this week after writing to the president requesting the entire project be cancelled in exchange for his life.
The government-backed scheme aims to divert water from the São Francisco river via canals going north and eastwards. This is an attempt to irrigate land plagued by more than 70 droughts in 150 years, relief for which has cost billions and failed to stem migration. For over 150 years successive governments have tried and failed to tap into the river, known locally as The River of National Unity, to help the north. At least until a local boy from Pernambuco state became president.
"I have prioritised the São Francisco project because I believe in it. . . this is in the interest of the long-suffering people of the northeast," wrote President Lula da Silva to Bishop Cappio in response.
The socialist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was born in the drought-afflicted region, from where he migrated to escape poverty. His defence of the $2 billion project is based on the argument that where now six million people benefit from the river, diversion would allow another 12 million people access to water. Just 1.4 per cent of the São Francisco's flow would be redirected, while revitalisation works downstream would happen simultaneously.
Opponents reject this, saying it's a potential white elephant and won't benefit the poorest. The bishop is backed by hundreds of social, environmental, scientific and religious organisations. They want the government to abandon this "flawed proposal" and first invest in revitalising the 2,700km-long river. "The project is not one that benefits the simple people. It's for big farmers and companies. It's like taking blood from an anaemic patient," says the bishop.
Some environmentalists concur, saying the perfect formula has not been found. Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace Brazil says that the right questions have not been asked.
"Who is the ultimate beneficiary of this project? Is it really the people who don't have access to water? What about land issues, rights for indigenous people and the social and economic impacts? You can't go ahead with this as it stands."
The location of the bishop's protest has been strategic. Cabrobo is where construction of the first canal exit point is planned. Already, this mainly agricultural town of watermelon, onion and mango growers is geared up for the giant construction machine to start rolling and the promised economic boom. The mayor, Eudes Caldes, says, "the people here defend the project. We have a history of donating our water, we already gave water for a town further north and we will be happy to do this again for the 12 million who need it".
The hunger strike has divided the church too. The Brazilian Confederation of Bishops has come out in opposition to Bishop Cappio's choice of protest, while, the Vatican, through the Papal Nuncio in Brasilia, states that hunger striking is not supported in Rome as it defies church doctrine.
The government has been getting increasingly nervous about the attention Bishop Cappio is attracting. Yesterday, a cabinet minister, Jacques Wagner, was dispatched to Bishop Cappio with a letter from the president offering to "extend dialogue" on the construction, release more money for the revitalisation of the river basin and an invitation for the bishop to meet him in Brasilia at any time. Mr Wagner emerged after 20 minutes and went straight into a mud hut outside to relay the outcome by phone. For now, it would seem, the bishop is holding firm.
Nearby the river, which may in time be renamed the river of National Disunity, flows innocently by, unaware of the trouble it is causing.