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Brazilian govt approves Amazon hydroelectric dam construction
Xingu River, Amazon – photo by E-GIACOMAZZI (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
To the disappointment of environmental and indigenous rights groups, the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest has been green-lighted by the Brazilian environmental ministry. The Belo Monte dam project on the Amazon’s Xingu River will be the world’s third largest project of its kind. The hydroelectric dam is part of a government initiative to fuel economic expansion while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Yet many see the Belo Monte project as destructive – both to the fragile and valuable ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest and to its indigenous inhabitants’ way of life.
Roberto Messias, head of Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama, said that around 12,000 people were likely to be affected by the construction but that many of them currently lived in wooden riverside shacks and were likely to benefit from the dam’s constructions.
–Guardian
The Brazilian government claims that no indigenous people will be displaced by the dam’s construction and that there will be no environmental disaster – yet it admits that 500 square kilometers (200 sq miles) of land will be flooded.
Read more on this story in the Guardian.
by Graham Land
Additional resources:
Sydney Morning Herald – Uproar in Brazil over huge Amazon dam plan
Sting still campaigning to save Amazon rainforests
Video report on Brazil’s contrasting environmental practices from ITN and CNN
Tags: amazon, Belo Monte, Brazil, Brazilian, construction, dam, environmental, government, Guardian, hydroelectric, indigenous, project, rainforest, river, Xingu
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