Blog 11 Dam Folly

Alex Clute
April 16, 2001
0930 EST

An article in Al Jazeera reports that in Brazil environmental and indigenous activists are currently struggling to prevent the construction of the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon. First conceived during the 1980s under the behest of a military government, the $10 billion project would divert 80% of the river, flooding over 100,000 acres of endangered habitat in the Amazon forest and forcing 20,000 indigenous people to relocate. If built the dam will be the third largest in the world and President Dilma Rouseff along with elements in the government claim that the dam will provide electric for 23 million homes and generate jobs and that the dam is needed to bolster Brazil's economic growth, which 7.5% last year.

Businessweek reports that the Belo Monte dam project has been order to halt by the Brazilian courts until twenty-nine undisclosed environmental criteria are met. The Businessweek article places the land that would flooded at 127,506 acres while placing the number of people being relocated at 1000. The dam would be built and controlled by a state-owned companies Eletrobras and Norte Energia.

A study conducted by International Rivers, entitled Environmental Impacts of Brazil's Tucurui Dam, on a similar dam project on the Tucurui River, also in Brazil, during the 1980s concluded that the construction of the dam consistently placed economic interests over those of the environment and people. And also found that the dam was built to fulfill the interests of foreign investment and the aluminum smelting industry. The results of the Tucurui dam were health and social problems coupled with large-scale environmental destruction. While noting that in theory Brazil has improved its environmental and social record, it is likely that future projects will follow the same course. The study calls for transparency in the planning of new development projects so that who benefits may be clearly determined.