INTERVIEW: Xingu power plant would be blow to Amazon, bishop says

By Helmut Reuter Apr 21, 2011, 4:03 GMT

Sao Paulo - Brazilian authorities argue that the planned Belo Monte dam, which would be the world's third-largest hydroelectric plant, is needed to satisfy the growing energy requirements of the country's booming economy.

But indigenous communities, environmental activists and representatives of the Brazilian Roman Catholic Church are trying to block construction of the plant on the Xingu River, warning it will cause irreparable damage to the Amazonia region.

Bishop Erwin Kraeutler, awarded the 2010 Alternative Nobel Prize, is one of the leaders of the struggle against the Belo Monte plant in Brazil's Para state. Opposition to the project 'is first of all about people,' he told the German Press Agency dpa in an interview.

'At least 30,000 people, and according to other estimates up to 40,000, are directly affected by the plant. You have to think that 40 per cent of a city like Altamira, with 105,000 people, will be flooded, and we still do not know where those people will go,' Kraeutler said.

The Austrian-born churchman, known as Dom Erwin, alleges that the government has not adequately discussed what will happen to people displaced by the Belo Monte project.

He fears the planned dam, scheduled to begin operating by 2015 at a cost of 11 billion dollars, would only be the start.

'Belo Monte would not be economically viable. Scientists and universities have proved that,' he said. 'The Xingu does not carry enough water year-round for the turbines to perform like that. It is nonsense to speak of a capacity of more than 11,000 megawatts, when the actual potential is half or a third of that.'

Kraeutler fears that a shortfall in hydroelectric production would be used to justify enlarging the project, which would become a 'blow to the heart of Amazonia.' The response 'would be to build three more dams. That would destroy the Xingu.'

Kraeutler points out that the struggle against Belo Monte has already been waged for three decades, and he remains unconvinced of government claims about securing long-term energy security with the dam.

'Why so large? Why such a pharaonic power plant, when things could also work differently?' he asked.

'Brazil has the wonderful chance to find other sources of energy. ... Why are solar power and wind power not being used?'

The Belo Monte facility is forecast to create around 20,000 jobs.

'Of course, I'm all in favour of the jobs,' Kraeutler said. 'But I said from the beginning that one must also take into account ethical issues.'

He is keen to stress the impact on people living in the way of the dam.

'It cannot simply be a matter of money to push thousands of people away,' Kraeutler said.

'For me, these people are not just numbers. For me, they have faces, they are children, they are women, they are men, they are older people who live here, whom I know personally. That is why I cannot simply act as if this had nothing to do with me.'

He argues that the construction permit for the Belo Monte dam was issued illegally.

'The indigenous people who are in fact being affected by the plant were not heard,' Kraeutler said.

He expects resistance to the dam to gain momentum.

'I, of course, hope that there will be absolutely no bloodshed,' Kraeutler said.

'That would be crazy, and the indigenous people would lose. In that case the tanks of the security forces would simply barge in, as happened in north-eastern Brazil, in the dispute over changing the course of the Sao Francisco river.'

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