Belo-Monte Dam, Brazil

[Judit, 20 Spain 7 September 2017 at 11:11 Post count: 0]

#3240 Reply |

The Brazilian government is currently constructing what would be the world’s third-largest hydroelectric project on one of the Amazon’s major tributaries, the Xingu River. The Belo Monte Dam would divert the flow of the Xingu devastating an extensive area of the Brazilian rainforest and displacing over 20,000 people, which threatens the survival of indigenous tribes that depend on the river. The government says the project will cost more than US$13 billion. While the project will have an installed capacity of 11,233 MW, the dam would be highly inefficient, generating as little as 1000 MW during the 3-4 months low water season. This will be an argument to build further dams upstream. The project is owned by a consortium called Norte Energia, mostly owned by the government, but mining giant Vale owns around 5% of it. Belo Monte will be a source of electricity for Vale’s mining operations in Para. However, the economics of Belo Monte are very doubtful. The Brazilian government has plans to build more than 60 large dams in the Amazon Basin over the next 20 years, implying the destruction of all the magnificent rivers of the Amazon. As the International Rivers network puts it: “The Amazon will become an endless series of lifeless reservoirs, its life drained away by giant walls of concrete and steel”. International Rivers is trying to help the Kayapó and other indigenous groups, lawmakers, and environmental and human rights groups to protect the Xingu River Basin from large dams. The area around Belo Monte now looks like a deforested huge mining operation. An article in Forbes foresees that Belo Monte will face large cost overruns, apart from let alone the environmental damage caused by diverting the tributaries of the Xingu, preventing navigation and fishing.The 25,000 workers there will not be employed forever. They have maybe two years to go if all goes according to plan and Belo is finished in 2016. There are continuous complaints from displaced indigenous peoples. In late May 2014, it was reported in The Ecologist that “20 Amazon Indians walked to the Belo Monte dam site to demand the company keep its promises to compensate indigenous communities. Police shot them with ‘rubber bullets’ and stun grenades, wounding four…”. This has happened again and again. Despite the dozen lawsuits filed by civil associations and public lawyers the project is still under construction.

[Author]

Posts