Women, narratives, spellings and memories: intertwined ethnographies in times of floods in a municipality in southern Bahia
environmental sciences; Brazil; homeless; environmental disaster; small cities
Rapid climate changes and disorderly urban growth, anchored in the development discourse, affect different layers of society. Academic analyzes of floods are generally reported from a quantitative point of view, focused on indices and metrics, which demonstrate an asymmetry of damage, mostly in the most vulnerable layers of society. A systemic and heuristic approach to floods must include the human factor with their subjectivities and senses of belonging to an affected community. The narrative approach of those affected by environmental disasters provides the emergence of the human factor, rich in nuances for an ethnography of floods, especially when it is allowed to remove the cloak of historical erasure of black populations. These, in turn, are generally those most affected by environmental disasters, an extension of the historical and structural racism that exists in Brazil. In December 2021, the municipality of Itororó suffered from a flood considered the largest in the historical series, due to heavy rains that hit the southern region of Bahia. In view of this, this research analyzed historical aspects of the floods in the Colônia neighborhood, Itororó, Bahia, through documentary research, articles and interviews with 14 women who live and suffered that water accident. An environmental ethnography is outlined and reports what this flood represented for the residents of the flooded regions. The narrative presents observations and experiences from the researcher's point of view, using the instrument of discourse analysis. The narrator focuses on the female population, the majority of whom are black, as a commitment to promoting the inclusive policies of the PPGCTA at the Federal University of Southern Bahia. The results indicate that the women are longtime residents, mostly black, with low education and poor. A significant proportion of women are breadwinners. The 2021 flood caused material and psychological damage, assuming that that group of women lives in permanent stress, not only based on reports, but due to their own social condition. Being black and a woman is a stigma that a racist and sexist society imposes on those residents. Despite the floods and social obstacles, there is a common identity among the interviewees towards the neighborhood and the Colônia River, which makes them remain in that space and territory. Some strategic measures are recommended that can mitigate or resolve difficulties related to flooding for the women in this study. This academic expression of the problem allows visibility of a hidden and forgotten population, which is periodically afflicted by environmental disasters.