História das águas do rio Gurguéia: entre envenenamento ameaça de extinção e resistências (2000 - 2020)

Abstract

The general objective of this research is to analyze how the excessive use of pesticides in the Piauí Cerrado, an area encompassed by the MATOPIBA project, has altered the relationships between Cerrado populations and the Gurguéia River, a tributary of the Parnaíba River and the main watercourse in the region, considering that the families living there depend directly on it. The study seeks to investigate how the grain monoculture model, especially soybean and corn production, has transformed ecosystems, ways of life, and social relations, promoting a process of environmental degradation and deepening social inequalities. The research is based on the understanding that the discourse of development and modernization, sustained by the State and agrarian elites, has been fundamental in legitimizing the appropriation of territories and natural resources under the rhetoric of a demographic and productive vacuum. The establishment of the agricultural frontier in Piauí played a crucial role in consolidating agribusiness as a political and economic project responsible for deforestation, land grabbing, intensive use of pesticides, and contamination of water bodies such as the Gurguéia River. Thus, the State’s complicity and the weakening of environmental policies reflect the role of the agribusiness lobby and the flexibilization of regulations governing pesticide use. The study also examines how state omission and the dismantling of regulatory agencies, such as IBAMA and ANVISA, have favored predatory practices, increasing the impacts on human health and the environment. The adopted methodology is qualitative, based on documentary research, including laws, reports, data from environmental agencies, and bibliographic review. The sources used include reports from the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the Social Network for Justice and Human Rights (REDE), and studies by authors such as Mathias (2017), Monteiro (2002), Acselrad (2015), Rodrigues (2023), and Vieira (2025). The consulted sources made it possible to conclude that agribusiness, although responsible for increasing Brazil’s GDP and export rates, produces devastating effects in the Piauí Cerrado, such as soil and water contamination, loss of biodiversity, intensification of land conflicts, and the illness of local populations. In contrast, there is a strengthening of social movements and traditional communities that resist through the struggle for land and environmental justice. Therefore, the expansion of agribusiness in Piauí expresses the contradiction between economic development and sustainability, highlighting that the current model privileges profit at the expense of life and environmental preservation.