Home > Controversy surrounds Brazilian dam project in Amazon (+video)
Controversy surrounds Brazilian dam project in Amazon (+video)
by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 21 May 20081 comment
english.aljazeera.net
Brazil Indians attack energy worker
Environmentalists say a new dam in the Amazon will displace nearly 15,000 local people [EPA]
Indians in Brazil’s Amazon region have attacked a delegate from the national power company when a heated meeting protesting a proposed dam exploded into anger.
An engineer with Brazil’s national electric company Eletrobras emerged from the gathering of local indigenous people and activists shirtless and bloody
About 1,000 Amazon Indians and environmentalists gathered in Altamira in the Amazon region on Tuesday to protest the proposed dam on the Xingu River.
Environmentalists warn the dam could destroy the traditional fishing grounds of Indians living nearby and displace as many as 15,000 people.
Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said that as the Eletrobras engineer spoke, participants booed while some complained his comments were antagonising and patronising.
After he sat down, tribal members surrounded him and began a ritualistic war dance.
The engineer, Paulo Fernando Rezende, was rushed out of the building after a melee formed and he fell from his chair.
It was not immediately clear whether Rezende was intentionally slashed or received a cut to the shoulder when he was surrounded and pushed to the floor.
Police said they were still investigating and that no one was in custody
"He’s lucky he’s still alive," Partyk Kayapo, told Associated Press.
"They want to make a dam and now they know they shouldn’t."
Following the attack, Kayapo and dozens more members of his tribe danced with their machetes.
The Brazilian government said the proposed US$6.7 billion hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River, which flows into the Amazon, will supply Brazil with an estimated 11,000 megawatts of power and is essential to meet growing energy demand.
If the plan goes ahead, the Belo Monte project will be the world’s third largest hydro-electric dam.
The attack recalls a similar meeting in 1989 when Indians held a machete to the face of another Eletrobras engineer during protests against a series of proposed hydroelectric dams on the Xingu river.
Following that incident, the World Bank canceled loans to Brazil for the dam.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, said earlier this month that his country’s pro-environmental policies have not changed.
But critics point to his decision to disband the environmental protection agency Ibama in recent months as a sign of placing priority on economic-friendly projects before ecological concerns.
Video:
http://internationalnews.over-blog.com/article-19751947.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/67FD1E7E-4106-4EAA-B803-EDE78438343D.ht
Forum posts
26 January 2012, 01:48, by Jennifer
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.