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BRAZIL:
Boat Brings
Health Care and Much More to
Remote Communities
Mario Osava
MANAUS, Brazil, (IPS) - The Zona
Franca Verde riverboat is
carrying on a longstanding
tradition by bringing medical
assistance and other public
services to isolated communities
near the banks of the Amazon
River and others that flow into
it, which are only accessible by
water.
But this particular boat's
mission is much more
wide-reaching, and represents
”the best practical expression
of Agenda 21,” the plan of
action adopted at the 1992
United Nations Earth Summit in
Rio de Janeiro, according to
Virgilio Viana, secretary of the
environment in the northwestern
state of Amazonas.
The Zona Franca Verde plays an
instrumental role in the
implementation of the
Coari-Manaus Gas Pipeline
Sustainable Development
Programme (PDS), which provides
citizenship, health and
development assistance to the
131 communities covered by the
initiative, said Viana.
These communities are located in
the vicinity of the 417-km
pipeline being built by the
state-run oil company Petrobras
to transport natural gas from
Urucú, deep in the Amazon
jungle, to the state capital of
Manaus.
The PDS programme is financed by
Petrobras, as a means of
compensating local communities
for the impacts of the pipeline,
and is administered by the
Amazonas state government. Some
50 government, university and
non-governmental institutions
have participated in its design
and implementation.
”It's gratifying to see the
happiness we bring to people,
like the old man over 90 years
old who was thrilled to finally
get a birth certificate,” noted
Helena Souza Paixao at the end
of the Zona Franca Verde's most
recent mission, which lasted 44
days and wrapped up last week.
Paixao, 46, plays the role of
skipper, overseeing the boat's
crew, and ”is the soul of the
project,” according to her
employers. Since September, the
boat has carried out five
expeditions, each lasting a
month on average.
But Paixao has lived for long
periods on this same boat for
more than seven years now, since
it was previously used to train
teachers in the state's
hinterland and to bring legal
documents and social security
services to remote riverside
communities through another
state government programme,
Itinerant Prompt Attention.
These long and frequent absences
may be one of the reasons Paixao
is divorced. Her 12-year-old son
misses her when she is gone, but
she says she feels compensated
by being able to bring so much
help to the residents of these
poor, isolated communities, even
saving lives, like that of an
elderly man seriously injured in
an accident, and another man
bitten by a snake.
Romario Tavares da Costa, 48, a
father of two and also divorced,
is the boat's chief engineer.
One of the most moving
experiences for him was when the
project arranged a disability
pension for a young mentally
disabled man who probably would
never have had access to this
benefit otherwise, due to a lack
of information, the poverty in
which his family lives, and
their distance from government
offices.
The Zona Franca Verde is like a
mobile office building
encompassing four sections. The
first ”offers citizenship,” said
Viana, by issuing birth
certificates and identity
documents, legalising marriages,
granting fishing permits, and
facilitating access to social
security benefits and other
social programmes.
Then there is the medical care
component, which has brought
ophthalmologists, eyeglasses and
ultrasound equipment to these
communities for the first time
ever, among other basic health
care services, he noted.
The programme's other two
segments are environmental
education and income generation.
The goal is to create the
conditions to raise local
incomes on a lasting basis,
which is why the main task
during the first visits to the
communities was to begin a
”socio-economic diagnosis”,
reported Valcleia Lima, the
programme's community
organisation coordinator.
With the participation of the
local residents, a total of 27
aspects are evaluated in the
communities, including
education, food security,
economic activities like
fishing, technology and credits.
After a participatory process of
setting priorities and planning,
the communities will be provided
with resources for
environmental, social and
economic investment, noted Viana,
a forestry engineer who left
behind the classrooms of the
University of Sao Paulo to
tackle the challenge of
promoting sustainable
development in Amazonas.
The proper disposal of solid and
liquid waste, so as to prevent
the pollution of rivers and
ensure the supply of clean
drinking water, is a key element
for the health of those who live
near the riverbanks, commented
Lima, whose task primarily
involves participating in
meetings to help foster
community organisation, rules
and leadership.
One of the most frequent demands
for expanding production and
boosting local income is soft
loans, he noted.
Unfortunately, many of the
activities that could help
diversify the local economy,
such as crafts, fish farming and
small animal husbandry, do not
have ready markets, and would
require the involvement of
intermediaries, Lima added.
The initiatives being undertaken
in the seven municipalities
through which the Coari-Manaus
gas pipeline will pass are part
of the Amazonas state
government's Zona Franca Verde
Programme, aimed at promoting
the sustainable development of
Brazil's largest state, home to
1.5 million square km of forests
and rivers.
Only two percent of the state's
territory has been deforested,
remarked Viana, which is
exceptional in the Brazilian
Amazon region as a whole, where
26,100 square km of forest cover
were wiped out between August
2003 and August 2004, according
to official figures released
last week.
The government of Amazonas has
established nine conservation
areas in the southern portion of
the state, the area most
threatened by deforestation, to
curb the unbridled destruction
of the Amazon jungle that has
sparked worldwide concern.
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