Video transcript
Inauguração da barragem de Oiticica
30 statements · 1 politicians · March 19, 2025 · 3 min
Statements by Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. 30 transcribed statements, with topic and stance on the ones the analysis classified.
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30 statementsFull transcript of the video. Statements the analysis classified carry topic and stance.
This is the fulfillment of a dream.
A dream that did not begin with me.
It began with Dom Pedro in 1846, to carry out the transposition of the São Francisco River, which he never managed to accomplish.
When I took office, I decided it was possible to carry out that transposition.
And we developed a project amid a lot of political debate.
Many people believed it was not possible to do.
But I believed it was possible.
And we started this work and I had the opportunity to visit.
If you haven't seen it, it would be important for you to visit the canal; it would be important for you to fly over it by helicopter, because I think it deserves a major report on the effects of the São Francisco canal for Brazil's Northeast.
Because this is the redemption of a people who for 300 years suffered from lack of water, suffered because of drought.
I always said that drought is a natural phenomenon.
But the death of animals and of people, and people leaving for São Paulo and the south of the country because of drought, was due to the irresponsibility of those who governed this country.
Because we had the means to do it.
And we proved it.
It may be the largest or the second-largest hydraulic work in the world.
Not only because it created a large canal, but because that canal brings water to the state of Paraíba, to the state of Rio Grande do Norte, to part of Pernambuco, to the state of Ceará and to the state of Bahia.
In other words, it made many rivers that were dry become perennial.
And it made many reservoirs that used to be empty most of the time into full reservoirs, to ensure that people have water to drink.
So it's a work, honestly, it's a work for which I even thanked God there on my knees, because if it weren't for God's help, I would not be president.
If it weren't for God's help, who knows, I might not have made the decision to undertake this work.
And if it weren't for God, perhaps we would not have completed it.
So we have to give thanks.
to all those who contributed so that this could be delivered.
There's still a little left, but I'm sure that when my term ends in 2026, the entire transposition will be completed and 12 or 13 million Northeasterners who live in the semi-arid region will no longer have to do what I did when I was 7 years old.
Carry a water pot on their heads — you can see I don't even have a neck, from carrying pots on my head so much; in other words, my neck didn't grow.
to be able to drink water — muddy water, water with snails, water with animal feces.
That was the world we lived in.
So now, thank God, if the governors work properly, if the mayors work properly, the people will have potable water to drink, the chickens will have water to drink, the goats will have water to drink, the donkeys will have water to drink, the cattle will have water to drink, everyone will have water to drink.
And the Northeast will also become a wealthy part of our country.
That's why I'm moved.
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