Jalapão Water Diversion

Three Brazil 2000 course participants not previously acquainted are now working together to analyze potential impacts of water diversion from the Tocantins River in central Brazil. The project would divert water from the Tocantins in the Jalapáo region, a unique transition zone between Cerrado woodland and caatinga. The water would be pumped into Brazil's arid Northeast for irrigation and hydroelectric power. Fani Mamede, formerly of IBAMA, Brazil's environmental agency, Paulo Garcia, a conservationist working with the municipality of Mateiros and Wilson Cabral, an engineer at the Sáo Paulo-based Technology and Aeronautics Institute, are performing an analysis of the projects potentially extensive environmental and economic impacts.