ACAUA, Brazil — The sun here is unforgiving. It cracks the parched earth into intricate spider web patterns that run beneath the scraggly brown bushes and green mandacaru cacti, whose arms stretch skyward as if begging for rain.

Welcome to Brazil's "sertao," a semi-desert region that covers some 647,500 sq. kilometers (250,000 sq. miles) behind the thin strip verdant jungle that lines the country's northeastern Atlantic coast and just south of the Amazon rainforest.

For centuries, getting water to the arid sertao has been an obsession for politicians and a puzzle for engineers.

"It's kind of lousy here, but somehow we get by," said 19-year-old Luiz Olimpio da Costa, who ekes out a living farming 33 parched hectares (82 parched acres) with no electricity or running water and expects half his crops to die before harvest time.

Now, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plans to embark on a massive 4.5 billion reals (US$2 billion; euro1.68 billion) project that would channel the waters of the Sao Francisco river -- Brazil's third largest -- across four states.

It's an old idea. Engineers first suggested drawing water from the Sao Francisco to fertilize the backlands in 1886, when Brazil was still run by Emperor Pedro II, but the idea was dropped when the monarchy fell in 1889.

Today, the project again is on the table -- and again under fire. Criticisms range from the possible environmental impact of rechanneling the ailing Sao Francisco, long known as "the river of national unity," to the project's high costs and whether the money wouldn't be better spent on cisterns and catchments.

Many of Silva's critics say he's only resurrecting the plan to win votes from farmers who will benefit from extra water, and campaign contributions from the companies that will be contracted.

Silva already is the target of a campaign-financing scandal that has engulfed the government since the former labor leader was elected Brazil's first leftist president in 2002.

In October, a Roman Catholic bishop embarked on a hunger strike in an attempt to stop the project would syphon off just over 1 percent of the river's water -- which he considered catastrophic for the Sao Francisco and its people.

Bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio called off his hunger strike after 11 days, when the government promised to delay construction and extend the discussion over the project.

Cappio says diverting the water will cause the river to dry up and that the project is intended to benefit a handful of construction companies and large agribusiness concerns. Meanwhile, poor farmers will pay higher electricity costs and water bills.

"This project will only make those already rich richer and the poor poorer," Cappio told The Associated Press.

The World Bank has declined to support the plan, citing unanswered questions in the environmental impact study and about the likely benefits. No international investors have expressed interest.

Silva's predecessor, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, shelved a similar proposal, largely over the cost and technical issues.

Supporters say the project will repeat the success of Petrolina. In the 1980s, the government channelled the Sao Francisco to irrigate farmland and transformed a dusty region into an agricultural wonderland -- producing grapes, mangoes and melons for export to the United States, Europe and Japan.

"Before irrigation there was nothing here. All that changed over night," said Francisco Medeiros Cavalcante Jr. Cavalcante, who is getting rich on just 25 hectares (62 acres) of green farmland, growing exuberant green grapes intended for European markets.

Even so, Cavalcante opposes the project.

"The problem is that it is very expensive to irrigate. The subsistence farmer doesn't have the capital necessary to pay for the electricity to irrigate so it will only benefit those with some money," said Cavalcante.

Supporters claim the project will provide water for some 12 million people, irrigate 330,000 hectares (815,430 acres), restore some 1,300 miles (2,000 kilometers) of dry river beds, and create jobs.

"This water, that was only going to be spilled into the sea, is now going to benefit millions of northeasterners. The ones who are opposed to the project are those who have access to the water and don't want to let us have any," said Maria de Lourdes Aragao Cordeiro, 50. She is the mayor of Monteiro, a town of 30,000 people in Paraiba state, one of the first cities that would receive water under the project.

Cordeiro says the plan goes beyond irrigation and involves distributing land to poor farmers who could take advantage of the newly available water. She says unlike the cisterns many people in her town use to collect rain water as a stop gap measure against the droughts, the project would provide a definitive solution.

"We can't let someone's religious fanaticism stand in the way of a project that has been very well discussed and that will benefit one of the driest cities in the region," she said.

Still, many remain skeptical.

When the irrigation project got started in Petrolina, the government also intended the project to benefit small farmers, distributing many small lots free of charge.

But the high costs of electricity for pumping water, fertilizers and pesticides caused farmers like Joao Batista da Silva, 68, had to abandon their land.

"There's plenty of land around here that's not being used. I'm trying to sell mine. So why do they want to open up more areas for agriculture?" said Silva who now works as a hired hand on someone else's farm.

Others point out that even with the project's 1,400 kilometers (900 miles) of proposed canals and tunnels, the water will still remain out of reach for many.

"It would be better for the government to invest in cisterns and reservoirs to collect rain water. It would certainly end up costing less," said Mauricio Carmo Barbosa, who heads the Marfrense Association for Community Rural Development in Acaua.

Barbosa points out that the transposition project won't benefit him because it won't pass anywhere near his town, which is among the poorest in Brazil, nor, for that matter will it pass by many other communities just like it.

Source: Associated Press