The Sao Francisco River is South America's fifth longest;* for more than 1 ,000 miles it winds northward from the quartz-bearing uplands of Minas Gerais through the arid, scrub-covered backlands of Brazil's northeastern bulge. Then, suddenly, it hurls itself 275 feet down a jagged granite precipice in the spectacular Paulo Afonso Falls.
At the falls last week, some 2,000 laborers were at work on a $43 million hydroelectric project designed to serve the power-starved cities of Brazil's "forgotten corner." In charge of the job was a corps of young (average age: 30) Brazilian engineers of the Companhia Hidro Eletrica do...
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