"As águas vão rolar": o Rio Uberabinha e a Estação de Tratamento de Água Renato de Freitas (ETA Sucupira) nas páginas do jornal Correio de Uberlândia (1967-1977)

Abstract

This research aims to investigate how the process of urban advancement in relation to water supply was portrayed in the pages of the Correio de Uberlândia newspaper from 1967 to 1977, with an emphasis on the activities of the Municipal Water and Sewage Department (Departamento Municipal de Água e Esgoto - DMAE), created in 1967, and the construction of the Sucupira Water Treatment Plant (Estação de Tratamento de Água Renato de Freitas - ETA Sucupira), inaugurated in August 1970. Based on theoretical references from environmental history and discussions on the concepts of space and territory, associated with the analysis of nature in the capitalist mode of production, the approach seeks to interpret social dynamics through the discourse of technical rationality, which guides human intervention in the biophysical environment. We start from the hypothesis that Correio de Uberlândia, as a vehicle linked to the city’s ruling groups, contributed to incorporating a technical and political vocabulary about intervention in rivers, supporting the structuring of DMAE and ETA Sucupira as essential elements for urban management and economic growth in the city, wich sought to establish itself as the “metropolis of the Triângulo Mineiro” in the view of these groups, with water supply being a determining factor in sustaining this accelerated growth. Analysis of newspaper reports showed that ETA Sucupira was hailed as a major achievement and na act of boldness and local autonomy, promising pure and abundant water to supply the city beyond the year 2000. The newspaper described the Uberabinha River and the Sucupira Waterfall as na ideal site, transformed by hyman and technological intervention, contributing to giving new social content to these water territories. The ETA Sucupira and acess to water remained central themes in political and discursive disputes, highlighting how the instrumentalization of water resources was fundamental to Uberlândia’s progress and growth project.