Monday 11 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
BRAZIL:
Small Hydroelectric Dams
Not So Green
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO
(Tierramérica) - The
combined impacts of
numerous small
hydroelectric dams in
one river basin can be
at least as harmful as
one large dam, warn
experts, environmental
activists and indigenous
groups, who face a flood
of new projects along
the rivers of the
western Brazilian state
of Mato Grosso.
Hydraulic energy from
small dams "is
interesting because of
its low environmental
costs, but everything
has its limits," says
André Villas-Boas in
reference to their
proliferation along the
tributaries of the Xingú
River, in the Amazon.
At least six small dams
are concentrated on the
rivers in northeast Mato
Grosso, points out
Villas-Boas, coordinator
of the Xingú Programme
of the non-governmental
Socio-Environmental
Institute (ISA). Two
have already been built
and a third has been
given the green light by
the energy and
environmental
authorities for the
Culuene River alone, the
main tributary of the
Xingú.
Such projects should not
be authorised without an
integral assessment of
the river basin in its
environmental and social
aspects, for a planned
exploitation of the
water resource as a
whole, and limits on the
number of hydroelectric
dams, according to
Villas-Boas, who notes
that more than half the
area of the Xingú is
indigenous territory.
The dams are located
around the Xingú
Indigenous Park, a
symbol of Brazil’s
indigenous policy that
is home to some 5,000
people from 14 different
ethnic groups.
Often included among
"clean" sources of
energy, small
hydroelectric dams have
become an attractive
business for the "soft
legislation" under
fiscal and financial
control and incentives,
without duly considering
that "they seriously
alter biological
dynamics" if there are
many in one watershed,
says Villas-Boas.
As a result, there are
240 small hydroelectric
dams planned in Brazil,
according to the
National Electric Energy
Agency (ANEEL). The 81
dams already under
construction will
produce 1,342 megawatts,
or 17.29 percent of the
total power supplies.
An example of a more
unsustainable panorama
is the Juruena River,
according to Raul do
Valle, an attorney who
coordinates ISA’s
political and legal
actions. In the Juruena
basin, in northwest Mato
Grosso, 83 hydroelectric
dam plans have been
registered. ANEEL
suspended 30 projects in
early July and decided
to pursue integrated
environmental
assessments for them.
There have been several
cases where indigenous
people have taken
government officials or
construction company
employees hostage, in a
bid to bring the work on
dams on the Juruena and
the Culuene rivers to a
halt. In other efforts,
lawyers have tried to do
so through legal
channels, obtaining
temporary suspensions of
construction permits.
There are many cases
where a final decision
is still pending.
"We predict that there
will be fewer fish" as a
result of the energy
projects on local
rivers, begun around 10
years ago, because the
dams "block the fish
from swimming upriver to
breed," said Paulo
Kamaiurá, who has taken
as his surname the name
of his tribe, who live
in the Xingú Park.
The affected rivers,
which are already
polluted by
agro-chemical runoff,
flow towards the Park
where they form the
Xingú River, and as a
result "the problems
will be aggravated,"
said Kamaiurá, adding
that it is essential to
mobilise indigenous
communities to raise
awareness about the
threats.
Because of their
presumed limited
ecological impact,
environmental permits
for small hydroelectric
dams are granted by
state, not federal,
agencies. And the state
bodies are more
vulnerable to local
economic pressures, says
Valle.
But the permits must be
issued by the national
Brazilian Environmental
Institute when the
projects affect Indians,
he explains. In the case
of northern Mato Grosso,
it is a matter of
survival of native
peoples, who rely on
fish for subsistence, he
adds.
That is the main
argument against the
dams in the legal cases
that are still pending.
The counter-argument set
forth by the
construction companies
and state authorities is
that the indigenous
groups do not suffer
direct impacts, given
that their lands are
dozens of kilometres
away from the dams.
But Valle stresses that
there is no need for
local production of
electricity, given that
the nearby cities are
connected to the power
grid, so there is no
justification for this
"destructive activity"
in benefit of private
enterprise. But the slow
pace of justice favours
the "consummated fact,"
he admits, noting that
it is nearly impossible
to stop dam operations
after they have been
built.
The dams reduce the
quantity of fish in the
rivers because they
alter currents and
nutrition, in addition
to eliminating migratory
species. Attempts to
reestablish reproduction
have not been
successful, according to
Juarez Pezzuti, a
biologist who conducted
a study of the effects
of Paranatinga II, a
small hydroelectric dam
operating on the Culuene.
The impacts could be
mitigated if there are
prior studies and
planning, and with the
participation of local
communities, who are the
ones left facing the
threats and often do not
even benefit from the
energy generated in
their backyards, says
Pezzuti, professor of
advanced environmental
research at the Federal
University of Pará.
In another area of
Brazil, in Santo Amaro
da Imperatriz, a town in
the southern state of
Santa Catarina, a
project involving six
small dams triggered
reactions that led the
local council to ban
hydroelectric dams in
the district, with only
one dissenting vote.
The ban is
unconstitutional, admits
Environment Secretary
Joao Renato Duarte. But
"99 percent of the
population is against"
the dams and the project
will only be approved if
it can be verified that
they will not harm the
hot springs, waterfalls
and rapids that attract
tourism and provide
recreational and
cultural activities for
local citizens, he said.
The dams are to be built
using the latest
European technologies,
channeling only a
portion of the river
flow through tunnels,
without affecting the
landscape or river
rafting, which is what
feeds local tourism,
says engineer Helio
Machado, head of the
project. The people
opposed to the endeavour
are talking about
ridiculous threats like
flooding or the drying
up of the Cubatão River,
because they don’t know
the details, Machado
says.
"It doesn’t make sense
to destroy the natural
heritage" of the city in
order to generate just
14 megawatts, retorts
Eliazar Garbelotto, who
runs a rafting business
on the Cubatão.
The tourism sector is
radically opposed to the
small hydroelectric
dams. There are five
rafting businesses that
bring in about 10,000
tourists a year, and
employ just 50 people,
but feed other tourist
activities as well as
providing environmental
education, Garbelotto
says.
(*Mario Osava is an IPS
correspondent.
Originally published by
Latin American
newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is
a specialised news
service produced by IPS
with the backing of the
United Nations
Development Programme,
United Nations
Environment Programme
and the World Bank.)
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