LARGE SCALE IRRIGATION PROJECTS AS A MEANS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE THIRD wORLD: A BRAZILIAN EXAMPLE

During the 1960s, many Third world countries adopted the large scale, multifunction water project as a development tool in drought prone arid and semi-arid regions. These II grea t projects ll were promoted by developed countries as being economically desirable. International financing institutions lent billions of dollars for their construction. It was anticipated that, in addition to supplying hydro-electric power for fledgling industries, such projects would bring previously uncultivated land under irrigated cultivation, and thus increase the regional food supply. This would achieve socio-economic stability and decrease the vulnerability of the local population to re-current drought. This policy was adopted in 1960 by the Brazilian government for application in the Northeast region of Brazil. Between 1967 and 1980 thirty large scale irrigation projects with affiliated colonization schemes were constructed in Northeast Brazil. The prototype project, Morada Nova in Ceara, was the subject of a socio-economic impact study completed by the author in 1986 (Meaney-Leckie, 1986). Evidence from the above study suggests that these projects cannot be considered effective anti-drought strategies. They benefit only a small minority of the vulnerable population in the drought stricken areas, a minority not composed of those most in need of assistance. The projects are not self-sustaining entities and the administrative and capital costs associated with them are extremely high. In addition, inadequate compensation for expropriated land and the lack of a re location policy has served to destabilize the population base in the region. MORADA NOVA Located on the Banabuiu River, Morada Nova (Map 1) was the first of ten large scale irrigation projects to be constructed in the state o