Brazil Set to Flood Rainforest, Displace Thousands
Luckily, under Brazil’s Constitution Indians must be heard if government changes will affect their land, which gives them veto power over the Belo Monte. Of course, who needs veto power when you have a machete?
Indigenous natives from many tribes attacked an engineer during a protest in Altamira last May, leaving him shirtless and with a bloody gash in his shoulder. After the bloody executive was led away, the protesters danced in celebration, waving their machetes.
“It was a shocking and regrettable act,” said Glenn Switkes, the Brazil-based representative of International Rivers, a California-based nonprofit group. “But it defines what’s at stake and shows that the determination and resistance by indigenous people is likely to be strong.”
The World Wildlife Fund-Brazil says that government officials could meet the growing needs of country by upgrading current systems. In one study they reported that Brazil loses 16-percent of the power it generates, compared with an international rate of about 6-percent. Rapid development of wind, solar and biomass facilities could also reduce the need for building s.
Belo Monte would be built in the heart of Para, a state that’s home to an explosive mix of poor settlers, cattle ranchers, loggers and scammers who fake land titles. And of course business and political leaders in Altamira support Belo Monte because of the development it will bring.
“With the dam, we’d have more income to improve infrastructure,” said Altamira’s mayor, Odileida Sampaio.
The dam would cost $10 billion and wouldn’t open until 2014 at the earliest. Jose Antonio Muniz, the president of gigantic state power company Eletrobras, said he expected to win approval to let construction bids in October and begin work on Belo Monte next year.
“It’s the best site in the world for a dam,” he said during an hourlong interview. “It will produce a lot of energy and have a minimal impact on people and the environment.”
Eletrobras submitted its environmental impact statement on Feb. 27 to Brazil’s environmental agency. It has yet to be made public.
Muniz said the government would minimize the environmental impact and the impact on its indigenous people. He also promised to compensate those affected, even those without land titles.
I don’t know about you, but my money’s on the guys with the machetes!
Source: PhysOrg.org
Image credit: fishbone1 via Flickr, under a Creative Commons license.
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