Belo Monte Dam News
Belo Monte Dam Location - click to enlarge.
The Government claims Belo Monte is a model of sustainable development. It is deliberately ignoring the genuine objections of at least half a million people including the indigenous people who will be affected by the development.
The ‘sustainable development’ is nothing more than exploitation of the already fragile Amazon region, so important not only to Brazil but to the the rest of the world. What the Brazilian Government means by economic growth is the selling of Brazil’s resources and the destruction of valuable ecosystems.
Who is buying? The capitalists of course, and we all know (even those not willing to admit it) that capitalism has no morality. They don’t care about the affect on people or the impact on the world’s ecosystem that the destruction of the environment brings.
Massive Protest Against The Belo Monte Dam - click to enlarge.
Myth #1: The dam will not displace or negatively affect indigenous people.
It will. The building of dams always affects not only the immediate area of the dam reservoirs but indirectly surrounding areas, sometimes for hundreds if not thousands of miles. Click the links below for proof of this view.
Myth #2: Brazil needs Belo Monte and 60 other major dam projects in the Amazon to meet its growing energy demand.
More BS. Investment in energy efficiency, solar and wind power would result 40% less energy required and add thousands of megawatts to Brazil’s energy grid.
Myth #3: Belo Monte is a good investment.
The government is lying! The Brazilian Government auctioned Belo Monte at an artificially low price of US$44 per MW/hour and claim it cost only US$8.7 billion to build. Independent assessors put the cost at US$17 billion.
Myth #4: Belo Monte will generate jobs.
Again, more government deception. Only 40,000 jobs will be created, at the height of construction, and only 2000 of them long term. Twenty thousand people will be driven from their homes.
Myth #5: Belo Monte will provide “clean and renewable” energy.
There is nothing clean or sustainable about Belo Monte. The flooding of the forest will generate enormous amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than CO2.
Myth #6: Belo Monte will provide electricity for all Brazilians.
Inefficient industrial companies have bought 30% of Belo Monte’s output at discount prices while Brazilian citizens continue to pay the highest energy tariffs in the developing world.
Myth #7: Belo Monte is only one dam complex, not a series of upstream dams.
Lies and more damned lies! Additional dams and reservoirs are required to regulate the river flows to the Belo Monte. The government is very aware of the seasonal inefficiency of Belo Monte.
Myth #8: Indigenous people were properly consulted according to Brazilian law and ILO 169′s guarantee to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.
Not true. Only four meetings were held in the cities of Altamira and Vitória do Xingú. At these the security forces obstructed the entrance of civil society representatives. Corrupt government at its worst.
Myth #9: Belo Monte’s Environmental Impact Study (EIA) was sufficient to issue an Environmental License.
Only the corrupt government and lacky officials choose to believe this. There are many unanswered questions and the government knows full well that the environment has not been considered adequately.
Myth #10: The 40 conditions contained in Belo Monte’s License and $815 million of mitigation funds are enough to lessen the project’s impacts
The needs of local communities has been ignored, as has the environmental needs.
The 10 myths explained in detail, click here.
A Message from Pandora from Amazon Watch on Vimeo.
Belo Monte Animation Narrated By Sigourney Weaver
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The World Bank estimates that forcible “development-induced displacement and resettlement” now affects 10 million people per year. According to the World Bank an estimated 33 million people have been displaced by development projects such as dams, urban development and irrigation canals in India alone.
India is well ahead in this respect. A country with as many as over 3600 large dams within its belt can never be the exceptional case regarding displacement. The number of development induced displacement is higher than the conflict induced displacement in India. According to Bogumil Terminski an estimated more than 10 million people have been displaced by development each year.
Athough the exact number of development-induced displaced people (DIDPs) is difficult to know, estimates are that in the last decade 90–100 million people have been displaced by urban, irrigation and power projects alone, with the number of people displaced by urban development becoming greater than those displaced by large infrastructure projects (such as dams). DIDPs outnumber refugees, with the added problem that their plight is often more concealed.
This is what experts have termed “development-induced displacement.” According to Michael Cernea, a World Bank analyst, the causes of development-induced displacement include water supply (dams, reservoirs, irrigation); urban infrastructure; transportation (roads, highways, canals); energy (mining, power plants, oil exploration and extraction, pipelines); agricultural expansion; parks and forest reserves; and population redistribution schemes.
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