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Social activists hold a banner which reads 'We don't want Belo Monte' during a protest in front of the National Congress in Brasilia against the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Xingu River, Amazon. (Evaristo SA/AFP/Getty Images)
The Brazilian government approved the construction of a massive hydroelectric power dam along the Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest, despite objections from environmental groups and indigenous people.
The license to go ahead with the $17 billion project was granted to Northern Energy by The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), which will generate around 11,000 megawatts of energy in the country. It will start producing electricity by 2015.
The agency said that “the licensing was marked by a robust technical analysis.”
Ecologists, the native community, and even religious groups have campaigned against construction of the dam, which will flood around 120,000 acres, or around 200 square miles of land along the river in Para state, the second largest state in Brazil, in area.
IBAMA added that the dam would create nearly 20,000 jobs and support thousands more people.
Government figures say that the construction of the dam will displace about 16,000 people living in the area. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, puts that figure closer to 20,000.
“The proposed dam would divert nearly all of the Xingu’s water flow,” which would destroy traditional fishing grounds, river transport means, and would submerge one of the largest tropical rainforests in the world, the commission noted.
The environmental group, Amazon Watch, said that more than 40,000 people would be displaced by the dam’s construction.
Meanwhile, the reservoir would generate “vast quantities of methane,” which is “at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.”
The Brazilian government has maintained that constructing the dam is critical to meet the country’s soaring energy needs.
After it is completed, the Xingu River Dam would be the third-largest in the world, behind China’s Three Gorges Dam and the Itaipu Dam, which is located on the Paraguay-Brazil border.
