Brazil Judge Suspends Construction of Massive Amazon Dam
RIO DE JANEIRO – A Brazilian judge ordered the
immediate suspension of the license authorizing work to begin on the
massive Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon jungle.
Construction
of the 11,233 MW dam, which will be the third largest in the world if
completed, has sparked harsh criticism from environmentalists, peasants
and Indians, who fear that it will degrade the Xingu River, one of the
Amazon’s main tributaries.
Friday’s ruling also bans the
transferral of funds to the construction companies involved by the
state-run BNDES development bank, which is to provide 80 percent of the
financing, the court in the northern state of Para, the site of the dam,
said in a statement.
Judge Ronald Desterro ruled that the
Brazilian Environment and Natural Resources Institute, or Ibama, granted
the initial license on Jan. 26 without ensuring that 29 conditions had
been met and without the Brazilian state-owned electricity distributor
Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco having provided information on
another 33 questions which it was required to answer.
Among the
conditions that have not been met are measures to guarantee the
navigability of the rivers in the region, support programs for the
affected Indian populations and plans for restoring areas that become
deteriorated.
“At every stage of the concession of licenses, the
government shows a lack of respect for the constitution and
environmental laws, and does so with the help of Ibama, which has become
a technical body that caves in to political pressure,” said prosecutor
Felicio Pontes, who sued to block the project.
Prosecutors said
that not only have the regulations for granting environmental licenses
not been complied with, but also the numbers presented in the project
study have been manipulated, which in his judgment makes it non-viable.
Some 372 species of fish live in the Xingu, which would be in danger of extinction if the dam is built, the document says.
The
Belo Monte project dates back to 1979 and was restarted by former
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration, which put it up
for auction in April last year.
Besides being a possible threat
to the environment, it will flood an area of 506 sq. kilometers (195 sq.
miles) of jungle and displace close to 50,000 Indians and peasants.
- See the original article in the Latin American Herald Tribune