(Buriticupu) A few meters from the cliff, Deusimar Batista is drying his clothes in the sun. About his garden, in a town in the Brazilian Amazon, nothing is left: the house next door has been swallowed up in a huge hole below and its street is beyond recognition.
“Before, it was good to live here, cars and bikes would pass in front of my house. Now all you have to do is see the damage,” the 54-year-old told AFP, pointing to rubble piled up at the bottom of the crater with slopes covered in thick vegetation. .
Experts say the town of Boritikobo, with a population of 70,000 in impoverished Maranhao state, could be wiped off the map in 30 to 40 years.
The appearance of these giant craters, which can reach a depth of 70 meters, is a rare phenomenon due to the exceptional erosion, the extent of which is particularly associated with uncontrolled urbanization and increased deforestation in recent years.
There are 26 in Boritikobo, known as ” vocorocas Term meaning “torn land” in the indigenous Tupi-Guarani language.
Seen from the sky, they look like canyons that gradually cut through the city. Erosion begins with small cracks in the ground that deepen over time.
The city council issued a “public disaster” status ordinance on April 26, and hopes to get funds from Maranhão and the federal government to start containment work soon.
“fear of death”
Since the formation of the first crater, about twenty years ago, seven people have died falling down the rapids and about fifty houses have been swallowed up. About 300 more are threatened, according to the city council in this city that has experienced strong urbanization since the 1970s.
Every time it rains, the craters widen a little more, enough to make Deusimar Batista shudder at the slightest downpour.
“I don’t sleep at night when it’s raining because my house could be washed away at any moment,” says the drowning black woman, who makes crochet crafts.
“I’m afraid of dying if I fall asleep,” she says.
Soil erosion has far more devastating effects than anywhere else in Buritukubo, due to “unplanned urbanization, with a faulty water drainage system,” explains Augusto Carvalho Campos, a geographer at the Federal University of Maranhão and author of a study on vocorocas.
Another aggravating factor: rampant deforestation due to logging in recent decades has greatly reduced the water-holding capacity of these sandy soils.
“It will be necessary to carry out containment work, but also to replant trees on the edge of the craters,” the geographer estimated.
Since most homes do not have a sewer system, sewage often flows into pits, only exacerbating erosion.
Anguish at every storm
“The commanders did nothing to deal with this problem and this is what happened,” laments Isaias Neres, president of the Association of Residents of the Areas Affected by the Fukurokas.
Mayor Joao Carlos Teixeira assured that “drainage and soil consolidation works” would begin soon.
Not enough to reassure Maria dos Santos, 45, who lives near one of the city’s largest craters, more than 60 meters deep, in the Vila Isaias area, one of the hardest hit.
“This hole appeared three years ago. It’s scary to live here, but I have no choice, I can’t buy a house anywhere else, ”explains this gray-haired black-haired Métis woman.
His modest house, with terracotta walls barely supported by planks, stands just a few meters from the cliff.
In front of the pit, there is not the slightest barrier or road sign in this neighborhood where children often go out to play in the street.
With every storm there is anguish. We do not know when the pieces of the earth collapse, because they make the same sound as thunder. We just have to hope God takes care of us.”
