Brazilian Construction Giant Odebrecht Withdraws from Peruvian Mega-Dam
For Immediate Release
November 22, 2011
Lima, Peru: Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht announced
yesterday that it would withdraw from a commitment to develop the 1278
MW Tambo-40 Dam on the Tambo River in the Peruvian Amazon. In an
official letter to the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines, Odebrecht
stated that after completing preliminary studies and learning of the
strong opposition by indigenous communities, the company decided to
“respect the opinion of local populations” and withdrew from the
project.
“This is a great achievement for the Ashaninka communities, who for
years have fought against dams on the Ene and Tambo Rivers,” said Monti
Aguirre, Latin America Program Coordinator for International Rivers.
“It also calls into question the Peruvian government’s plans for
building a series of dams on the Ene-Tambo River, where indigenous
communities are vehemently opposed to dam construction.”
The Tambo-40 project would affect more than 14,000 indigenous peoples of
the Tambo and Ene River. To convince Odebrecht, the Ashaninka of the
Tambo River invited company officials to meet with community members in
traditional assemblies to listen to the concerns of the indigenous
peoples. The withdrawal of Odebrecht leaves Tambo-40 without a
developer.
“We welcome this decision by Odebrecht to respect our rights. We hope
that other Brazilian dam builders will follow Odebrecht’s lead and make a
similar decision. We are very concerned about dam construction because
there is already a very high rate of malnutrition in our children, and
we depend on the river’s resources, which would have disappeared if the
dam were built. As the river is also our only means of transportation,
this project would cut us off from the rest of Peru,” said Manuel Leon
from the Central Ashaninka of the Tambo River.
The project would submerge 22,000 hectares of forest, and communities
fear that the network of roads for building the dam and power lines
would open up the area for illegal activities and colonization of the
protected Otishi National Park and Ashaninka Communal Reserve. The
Ashaninka will now turn their attention to convincing Brazilian company
Electrobrás, interested in building another dam on the Tambo River – the
Tambo-60 – to withdraw.
Tambo-40 would have been for export of hydroelectric power to Brazil and
was one of the projects contemplated under the energy agreement signed
between Peru and Brazil in June 2010. Odebrecht’s decision comes as a
blow to President Ollanta Humala, who has recommitted his government to
the agreement signed by his predecessor, President Alan García. The
agreement commits Peru to supplying more than 6000 MW of power to
Brazil, most of which is expected to come from hydropower in the
Peruvian Amazon, which is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Many
of the projects contemplated by the agreement were designed by the
Brazilian electric utility Eletrobrás in conjunction with Brazilian
multinational construction giants Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez, all
of which would be directly involved in dam construction with funding
from the Brazilian national development bank, BNDES.
“We hope that the new government and congress reevaluates the energy
agreement and looks for other ways to meet Peru’s development needs than
exporting hydro to Brazil. Our rivers should not become vehicles for
supplying Brazil’s energy-intensive industries with power,” said Ruth
Buendia Mestoquiari from the Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene.
“We are asking the Peruvian government to give permanent legal
protections to the Ene and Tambo Rivers so that they can be preserved
for future generations of Ashaninka.”
- Manuel Leon, Central Ashaninka del Rio Tambo, Peru + 51- 9-8362-6288, leon21@hotmail.com
- Ruth Buendia Mestoquiari, Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene, Peru + 51- 964862013, ashaninkarioene@yahoo.es
- Monti Aguirre, International Rivers USA +1-707-591-1220, monti@internationalrivers.org