The Salitre river has dried up. The desertification of Campo Formoso, a municipality with an estimated population of 71,000 inhabitants, covers an area of 80 km2 where hundreds of quilombola families, small farmers, and traditional pasture communities live.
In addition to the silting up of stretches of the Salitre River, environmental degradation is marked by unproductive soils that have forced residents to migrate. And the affluent of the São Francisco river is not the only example of this phenomenon. Studies indicate that there are at least six rural communities in the so-called sertão of São Francisco whose water and food security is currently threatened by severe desertification.
The building of 35 dams in the Medium Salitre watershed has been identified as one of the causes of extreme drought and erosion. Deforestation of the caatinga, overgrazing, and irrigated agriculture that is incompatible with the natural limits of the biome are also at the root of the problem, say researchers.
"In Campo Formoso, karst desertification is a young but dangerous phenomenon", explains Jémison Santos, a professor at Uefs (Feira de Santana State University). The term comes from "karst", damage considered irreversible that occurs when ecosystems become species of rocky and desolate landscapes. One of the best-known examples in the world is the deserts of Guangxi, China. "It works like a downward spiral. One problem leads to another and you lose control of the process with the biota becoming increasingly vulnerable", adds Santos, who studies karst in Bahia.
In the state, there are 289 areas susceptible to desertification. In addition to them, there are worrying situations spread across eight states in the Northeast and in the north of Minas Gerais. These areas, highlights Santos, can become new karsts. According to data from Sima Caatinga (Monitoring and Alert System for the Vegetal Coverage of the Caatinga), from Ufal (Federal University of Alagoas), 13% of the Northeast region has already been transformed into a desert.
Translated by Cassy Dias