El Quimbo is a hydroelectric power plant in the southern Colombian province of Huila and the second-largest facility of its kind in South America. Since the very beginning the project faced major resistance from residents, who were never consulted by the dam builder Emgesa, ( which isa Colombian subsidiary of the Spanish utility Endesa and the Italian utility Enel.). The reservoir created by the dam spans approximately 20,000 acres, an area that used to be fertile and was populated by many small farmers. These lands, before the dam’s construction, were producing coffee and fruit trees and were also used for fishing and cattle ranching.The major impacts are submergence of agricultural land and forest areas, displacement of people (the project will require evicting 467 families) submergence of a bridge over the Yaguilga River and of the church of San José de Belén, the submergence of archaeological sites and of course there will be negative effects on fisheries and terrestrial fauna.In February 2015 El Quimbo( which generates 5 percent of the electricity consumed in Colombia) was shut down by a court because the companie failed to remove wood and biomass from the dam before refilling and that failure would harm the environment.President Juan Manuel Santos called on the courts several times to allow the hydroelectric power plant to be back on operation due to the drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, which has lowered river and reservoirs levels.On January 2016 a court in Neiva, the capital of Huila, allowed the power plant to be restarted. Thankfully the Costititional Court ruled against that decision and required for the dam to be shut down.

Written by: Elisa Veritti

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El Quimbo hydroelectric power plant in Colombia