Belo Monte Dam: The Pressure is Rising
aviva@internationalrivers.org
aviva@internationalrivers.org
It's been a fabulous couple of weeks for the campaign to stop the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Amazon's Xingu River. Momentum is building - in public opinion, in the courts and in the legislature - so much so that a Federal Court yesterday suspended the project's development!
It all started last week when construction giants Odebrecht and Camarga Correa
- no strangers to controversial dam projects - announced that they were not interested in building the project because it was not economically viable at the price
set by the Brazilian government. This has left the government scrambling
to find other potential bidders for the project, resulting in delays in the
date for finalizing expressions of interest in the project.
The lack of economic viability is no surprise to the coalition of groups
fighting the dam, who have long argued that the dam is an expensive way to
deliver energy to Brazil. While the project's installed capacity will be more
than 11,000 MW, during the 3-4 month low water season it will generate as
little as 1,000 MW of power, leaving most of the project's turbines at a
standstill. Such a small generating capacity for several months of the year
doesn't justify the high investment cost of more than US$10 billion.
The exit of these two powerful construction companies caused President Lula to
show his true colors. He sputtered that "There's one thing you can be sure of:
we'll do Belo Monte" whether or not the private sector is interested in
investing, despite having promised last year not to "shove Belo Monte down
anyone's throats."
But President Lula may have more on his hands than he
bargained for. On Monday, James Cameron and Sigourney
Weaver lent their star power
to the campaign, joining a protest of more than 700 dam-affected and indigenous
people in Brasilia to demand the cancellation of the project. James Cameron
said he was being "drawn into a situation where a real-life Avatar
confrontation is in progress. What's happening in Avatar is happening in Brazil
and places like India and China, where traditional villages are displaced by
big infrastructure projects."
The protest got massive media attention, beaming news of the controversial project across the globe, and
leading President Lula to lash out at international critics of the project, stating that "those who already
destroyed their own environment don't need to be coming here making guesses
about ours." Ironically, its the promoters of Belo Monte who are making
guesses about their environment: there are still many unanswered questions
about the project and its impacts.
As if the prayers of Monday's protestors were heard,
yesterday a Federal Court ordered the suspension of Belo
Monte's provisional environmental license and the cancellation of the auction, scheduled for
next Tuesday. The decision is in response to a civil action filed by Brazil's
Federal Attorneys, who claim that the project violates a section of the
constitution concerning the exploitation of water resources on indigenous
lands. This is a huge setback for the government, who will presumably appeal
the decision to a higher court.
But the Federal Attorneys still have at least one more action up
their sleeve, which was also filed last week. They are questioning
irregularities in the approval of the environmental license for the project,
including blatant disregard for the arguments and concerns presented during the
public hearings and failure to consider any scientific data about what sort of
water releases would be required to maintain life along the Big Bend of the
Xingu. The environmental licensing process at IBAMA was beset by irregularities, and two senior officials resigned due to the
political pressure they were receiving to approve the environmental license for
the project.
To top it all off, concerns are growing in the national congress about the
project. Last week, at a hearing in the Environmental Commission of the House of Representatives, the House and Senate
agreed to conduct a joint investigation into the Belo Monte, Estreito and
Madeira dam projects. Senator Marina Silva, former Environmental Minister and
Green Party Presidential Candidate, is organizing a Senate hearing on the
involvement of the Brazilian national development bank, BNDES, in bankrolling
Amazonian dam projects, and Senator Pedro Simon called for transparency and oversight in the auction
process, expressing concern about the government's plans to use state pension
funds to finance the project.
As sure as the Xingu is flowing, momentum is building on the campaign. Lula
better watch his back, because the struggle certainly ain't over yet!