It cost £2.1bn to divert a river in Brazil’s outback. So where has all the water gone?

Brazil’s massive £2.1bn project to divert the São Francisco River promised to solve chronic water shortages in the arid sertão region. Designed to feed reservoirs and canals across four states, the infrastructure was intended to provide security for 12 million people. Years after completion, many displaced residents find themselves worse off than before the construction began.

Families were moved into planned communities labeled as productive rural villages, but these sites often lack the basic water infrastructure the government pledged. While officials claim their responsibility ends with transporting the water, the reality for people like Maria de Fátima Ferreira da Silva is stark. She was relocated from her original land where she maintained self-sufficiency through artesian wells. Now, she lives in a grid-style village without connection to the water mains, leaving her dependent on barrel deliveries and local reservoir trips.

Not every community shares the same result. In areas where local residents organized persistent advocacy campaigns, such as in Vila Lafayette, communities finally secured access to irrigation and mains water. Others remain caught in a cycle of waiting for government action or local political shifts. The project highlights a significant gap between top-down infrastructure planning and the actual delivery of services to the most vulnerable citizens.

Despite ongoing political support for the initiative from federal leadership, critics like regional prosecutor Janaína Andrade argue the diversion caused damage to the donor basin while failing to deliver consistent benefits to the target population. For those like Edileuza dos Santos Leite in Vila Salão, the promise of a modern home remains unfulfilled as they continue to live without running water in the shadow of a multi-billion pound canal.