Drought implications in the lives of residents of the rural Northeast

Abstract

Drought is a natural and physical phenomenon that occurs with some regularity in the Northeast of Brazil. The reductionist understanding of this problem, associated with lack of water, facilitates the naturalization of its social effects. The article aims to discuss the psychosocial impacts of the drought in the lives of residents of a rural community in northeastern Brazil. The methodology is quantitative, with the provision of a questionnaire to 207 subjects, residents of Canafístula Community, city of the State of Ceará. It was learned that 87.9 % of participants had lived through some drought, which impacted on the lack of water for human and animal consumption, in production losses. Insecurity about the future, feelings of discouragement and sadness, fatalism and acquired hopelessness appear as psychosocial impacts of the drought. It highlights the importance of denaturalization of this phenomenon and the analysis of the objective and subjective impacts on the lives of rural communities.