The Northeast Backcountry Has The Lowest Rainfall Levels In Brazil, With Annual Averages Below 500 Mm, Recurring Droughts Since The 19th Century, And Direct Impacts On 11 States And Millions Of Inhabitants

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 15/12/2025 at 05:59

Updated on 15/12/2025 at 06:10

Sertão é a região mais árida do Nordeste, com chuvas abaixo de 500 mm por ano, altas temperaturas, secas históricas e forte impacto social

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The Northeast Sertão Integrates The Drought Polygon, Occupies About 1,000,000 Km² In 11 States, Records Rainfall Below 500 Mm Annually And Faces Recurring Droughts That Impact Population, Rural Economy And Water Security

The most arid region of the Northeast is the Sertão, a semi-arid strip that spans about 1,000,000 km² in 11 states, records irregular rainfall of less than 500 mm per year, high average temperatures, and a centuries-old history of droughts that affect supply, agricultural production, and social dynamics.

The Sertão includes areas of Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Piauí, and portions of Maranhão and Minas Gerais, integrating the so-called Drought Polygon, officially defined in the early 20th century.

The predominant climate is hot semi-arid, with long periods without precipitation, high evapotranspiration, and rains concentrated in few months, which hinders the recharge of reservoirs and shallow aquifers in the region.

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Average annual temperatures vary between 26 °C and 30 °C, with peaks exceeding 40 °C in years of severe drought, increasing water losses in the soil and reducing dryland agricultural productivity.

The typical vegetation is the Caatinga, a bioma exclusive to Brazil, adapted to water scarcity, with deciduous species, cacti, and thorny shrubs that enter dormancy during prolonged droughts.

Historically, droughts recorded since the 19th century have caused mass migrations, food crises, and local economic collapses, shaping public policies focused on reservoirs, dams, and programs for coexistence with the semi-arid region.

Currently, the Sertão concentrates a significant portion of the country’s vulnerable rural population, with a strong dependence on cisterns, water supply pipelines, and water security programs for human consumption and livestock watering.

Despite climatic limitations, the region hosts centers of irrigated fruit farming, solar energy, and goat and sheep production, demonstrating productive adaptation even under the most arid conditions of the Brazilian Northeast.

1 Comment

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Sazinho

#209766

16/12/2025 08:52

Kd o consórcio nordeste..e só fazer uma tubulação de onde o rio são Francisco deságua no mar e levar para estas regiões áridas
.só falta vontade política e união dos estados..

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The Northeast Backcountry Has The Lowest Rainfall Levels In Brazil, With Annual Averages Below 500 Mm, Recurring Droughts Since The 19th Century, And Direct Impacts On 11 States And Millions Of Inhabitants

The Northeast Sertão Integrates The Drought Polygon, Occupies About 1,000,000 Km² In 11 States, Records Rainfall Below 500 Mm Annually And Faces Recurring Droughts That Impact Population, Rural Economy And Water Security

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The Northeast Backcountry Has The Lowest Rainfall Levels In Brazil, With Annual Averages Below 500 Mm, Recurring Droughts Since The 19th Century, And Direct Impacts On 11 States And Millions Of Inhabitants

The Northeast Sertão Integrates The Drought Polygon, Occupies About 1,000,000 Km² In 11 States, Records Rainfall Below 500 Mm Annually And Faces Recurring Droughts That Impact Population, Rural Economy And Water Security

In the cold desert of Ladakh, where it hardly rains, engineer Sonam Wangchuk created the ice stupa, a tower that freezes winter water and stores it for irrigating crops in the spring, a simple engineering feat that mimics nature.

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

Two helicopters, 41 people, and over 38 tons of bait were mobilized on a remote Pacific atoll to eliminate rats; five years later, native trees grew by 5,000%, seabirds gained habitat, and the rainforest began to regenerate.

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Old hard drives may hide neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, and terbium, and a United States company is expanding its network with a new 93,000-square-foot facility to recover rare earths used in electric cars, artificial intelligence, defense, and renewable energy.

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