Brazilian judge orders construction of Amazon dam to stop
Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project halted after ruling that it risked
damaging fish stocks on Xingu river
* Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 September 2011
11.34 EDT
'We don't want Belo Monte,' reads a sign
at an anti-dam rally in front of Brazil's parliament. A judge has
ordered building of the dam to stop. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty
Images
A Brazilian judge has ordered construction to be suspended on a controversial
hydroelectric dam in the Amazon.
In his ruling, Judge Carlos Castro Martins said that all working on the
Belo Monte dam that interfered with the natural course of the Xingu
river should be halted because of the risk that fish stocks would be
damaged.
The £7bn dam would reputedly be the third largest in the world, after China's
Three Gorges and the Itaipu project on the Brazil-Paraguay border.
The injunction is the latest development in a decades-long battle against
the Belo Monte dam, plans for which were conceived in the mid-1970s but
subsequently shelved after protests.
Brazil's government argues that the dam is essential to the energy needs of the
country's booming economy. A full environmental licence
for the construction was issued in June, with federal authorities promising a
series of initiatives to lessen the social and environmental impact of the dam.
On Tuesday, activists from the anti-dam Xingu Para Sempre movement claimed the
project had brought unprecedented chaos to the riverside town of
Altamira, with thousands of impoverished migrants having arrived by boat or
road in search of work.
"Nothing good is coming to the region
and all of our darkest prophesies are coming true," Antonia Melo, one of the
movement's leaders, said.
Earlier this week, politicians from Altamira's townhall filed papers with the
regional public prosecutor,
asking for work on the dam to be interrupted.
"The former
president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, publicly promised … that the
project would bring major benefits to Altamira and 10 other towns around this
mega-project," the document said. "But what we have so far seen
are painful frustrations such as increased poverty, insecurity and
social chaos."
On Wednesday the judge issued his ruling to suspend building work.
While there has long been widespread opposition to the dam from
environmentalists, social activists and even Hollywood figures such as
the director James Cameron, Altamira's political leaders have been
broadly supportive of Belo Monte in the past, arguing it could bring
development to the region.
Norte Energia, the consortium behind Belo Monte's construction, is expected to
appeal against the decision.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/29/brazilian-judge-monte-bello-dam
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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