Watering the Semiarid

Abstract

Since the earliest records, the Brazilian semiarid, in the northeast of the country, has suffered from water scarcity and recurrent droughts. To mitigate the effects of high variability and low availability of water in the region, governments have been investing, since the 1960s, in the construction of dams to stop the loss of water to the ocean, and water channels, to quickly distribute the stored water to places of greatest demand. Of the 10 states in the Brazilian seminary, the one with the largest amount of waterworks is Ceará, where the largest reservoir in Latin America is also found, Castanhão, built in the middle third of the Jaguaribe river, whose basin drains 50% of the state’s territory. The construction of the Castanhão dam demanded, among other actions, the resettlement of the urban centre of the city Jaguaribara, which had 2/3 of its territory flooded to make way for stored water.

The initial study showed the unsustainability of the regional water system and a series of problems regarding the use and availability of water in Jaguaribara. Such observation aroused the hypothesis that local water management could be improved by combining engineering and nature-base solutions, considering the inhabitants of Jaguaribara and the unique biome of Brazilian semiarid, the Caatinga. Therefore, the present work adopts the research through design strategy (RTD) and starts from the analysis of the wetness Ceará and Jaguaribara, to propose design strategies that aim to establish a wetness retention landscape in Jaguaribara - also stretching these ideas at a larger scale. As result, the design strategies were evaluated for their effectiveness in terms of creating an autonomous and drought-resilient community, being classified into seven types, according to their specific objectives and areas of implementation.