Sí£o Francisco River Transposition Civil Work: Challenges to the Brazilian Economy

Abstract

Locatedat the northeastern region in Brazil, the Sí£o Francisco River has recently drawn a great deal of attention from the world construction business, since its pharaonic civil work of transposition, here highlighted as a Brazilian development model for the northeast region.  The transposition was initiated in 2007 and 86.3% concluded in 2016. The Sí£o Francisco River is 2.683 km long, located in a semiarid climate (caatinga) that crosses the states of Minas Gerais,Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, and Pernambuco, throughout 521 municipalities. The project encompasses the creation of 477 km of artificial channels that will take water to approximately 12 million people, with the aim to revitalize economically the entire region, seriously affected by constant droughts. The transposition civil work is not a recent idea. It was first idealized in 1847, during the Brazilian emperor D.Pedro II period (1840-1889). Despite the Brazilian Government initiative, its execution as a project has been controversial, because it has spent almost two times the original budget forecasted and, at least, five more years to conclusion than originally planned. This work analyzes the impacts of the Sí£o Francisco River transposition, its pitfalls and challenges faced throughout the years.