Affected by Dams, climate changes and Public Polices: interviewing Jackson Dias

Abstract

This interview aims to present the main elements necessary for understanding the challenges and organizational forms of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), as well as to introduce agendas and debates to be further explored regarding climate change and public policies. Far beyond large infrastructure projects, the increase in the number of affected people has occurred significantly due to climate change, a phenomenon that is now responsible for accelerating the mass impoverishment of numerous families in impacted regions. This reality poses new challenges due to the difficulty in assigning blame for the environmental crimes caused by the ambitions of accumulation-driven motives, as well as due to the absence of the State itself in failing to create institutions prepared to address such problems. Despite its historical significance as a victorious and necessary popular policy, the National Policy for the Rights of Populations Affected by Dams (PNAB) emerges as a policy that still needs not only to be improved to understand the dialectical movement of society, but especially requires strength to ensure its implementation so that reparations of different natures can materialize and the rights of populations can be secured. Regional differences and inequalities also stand out as factors that must be considered so that analyses properly account for their specificities and vulnerabilities.