Outside his house by the Sao Francisco river
Emanoel de Souza toys with the skin of a caiman he hunted a month earlier
You leave a cow's heart on a hook by the river
and by morning a caiman will have bitten," he smiles
The meat makes for a good meal and the skin provides an amusing decoration
But Mr de Souza gets much more than caimans from the Sao Francisco
The river also provides water for him to farm fish and rice
The profits of the last harvest alone paid for a new motorbike
Raquel Torres has lost a crop of beans and maize due to lack of rain
There is no irrigation here," she says
cooking and washing arrives every few weeks by lorry
Like many residents of Brazil's dry north-east
she knows that water can be the scarcest commodity
The national government's solution is to divert part of the Sao Francisco - the only major river that starts and finishes in Brazil - through the sertao
will deliver water to cities and to agriculture
The basic idea is not new - it has been mooted for centuries and seriously mulled over for decades - but its implementation is
Works began in 2009 and are scheduled for completion in 2025
the project will benefit more than 12 million "people who are thirsty"
Looking over the potentially fertile soils of the sertao under the intense sun
locals are prone to echo a single sentiment: all that is lacking is water
has become one of Brazil's leading producers of fruit for export
it is the only place in the world where grapes can be harvested twice a year
Environmentalists say the Sao Francisco is already overused
threatens the river's capacity to generate the North East's hydroelectricity
"The diversion won't resolve the water supply problem of the most-at-need people in the sertao
because they are geographically so spread out," argues Joao Suassuna
won't be able to supply the volumes of water necessary to ensure the viability of the venture."
which concluded that reservoirs and rainfall could supply three times as many people as the diversion
Both supporters and opponents of the diversion project agree that
The diversion project is as much political as it is agronomical
it is his chance to show his commitment to his native north-east
it promises enormous investment: at 6.6bn reais ($3.7bn)
the biggest single project of the current government
such political considerations have meant inefficiency
"The government chose the more expensive project [the diversion]
just so that more resources could be dedicated to the north-east," he says
But others see it as a blow for the north-east against the richer
we are like what Brazilians are for Americans: third-class
We are profoundly discriminated against," says Eudes Caldas
where the diversion works are taking place
he is all too familiar with its stalled economic progress
He did not see a car until he was 18; now a stream of construction trucks rolls by just a few blocks away
"I'm in favour of the diversion," he says
the young people were getting into drugs."
doubts often lie about the details of the diversion
You're left in doubt," says Raquel Torres
Even Mayor Caldas complains that the federal government should do more for his town
arguing that a 5km stretch of land expropriated by the government could be handed over to local producers
What is clear is that water is in the political limelight
President Lula and his party's candidate in November's presidential election
to inaugurate a separate irrigation project
Look how beautiful it is!" he told the assembled press
She is likely to face Sao Paulo Governor Jose Serra in November's poll
He is the only major candidate not to have explicitly committed himself to Sao Francisco project
Water means much in the north-east - and Ms Rousseff is hoping it might mean electoral buoyancy
What are these?
' + liveStatsFacts[Math.floor(Math.random()*liveStatsFacts.length)] + '
Most Popular Now | 56,514 people are reading stories on the site right now.";