From Serra dos Cavalos to Vale do Ipojuca (Caruaru/PE): water and environmental history in the brazilian Semiariate

Abstract

The urban nuclei in the Brazilian semiarid region present memories, trajectories, and stories of the dramaticity of water supply challenges. In the agreste of Pernambuco, the region with the largest water balance deficit in the state, lies the thirsty city of Caruaru, which in the period of a century (1916-1983) experienced the mishaps of hydration of expansion projects, initially from of the natural course of the river Ipojuca as the first source, later in the high sources of the Serra dos Cavalos. The disputes with different conceptions of solutions and the conflicts between the different uses left the marks in the way, in the relations of the different subjects with the waters. The article was elaborated based on normative documentary records of the municipality, journalistic texts, of local writers and in dialogues with reports of residents' memories through interviews in an approach from the perspective of Environmental History.