By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 20 2006 (IPS)

Bolivia’s charge of potential harm to its national territory from the construction of two dams in the Brazilian Amazon could delay work on the mega-projects, whose environmental impact studies will be debated in November.

Brazil’s government plans to build two hydroelectric dams – the Jirau and San Antonio – on an uneven stretch of the Madeira River, in the western Brazilian state of Rondonia, with energy production potential of 3,300 and 3,150 megawatts, respectively.

The Madeira is the biggest tributary of the Amazon River, and begins in the Bolivian Andes.

A recent report from the Bolivian Forum on the Environment and Development called for an accord between the two countries as “the only route possible for making the project for exploitation of the Madeira River effective,” as well as “a more in-depth analysis” of the possibility of trans-border alterations in water flow.

Jorge Molina, author of the report, stressed that the Madeira basin “concentrates 95 percent of the annual flow of the Bolivian rivers and all the navigable waterways” in the country.

The Bolivian demands could prolong the discussions about the project, whose environmental impact study will be reviewed in four hearings next month.

“If Bolivia formally presents a consistent challenge, it will be considered and could modify the operation of the Jirau plant, which is closest to the border, so that its reservoir does not affect Bolivian territory,” Valter Muchagata, of the governmental Brazilian Institute of Environment (IBAMA), said in a Tierramérica interview.

At its maximum capacity, the dam would elevate the level of rivers in part of Bolivia, which would justify a bilateral agreement, but the contract and rules of operation impede that possibility, he said.

Construction of the two dams is urgent, according to energy authorities and business leaders, to prevent a repeat of the 2001 blackouts, when Brazil was forced to adopt measures to ration electricity consumption.

The issue has filtred into Brazil’s electoral campaigns: social democrat Geraldo Alckmin, presidential candidate of the opposition, accused the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government of being slow to act in authorising hydroelectric mega-projects.

But building dams in Brazil, particularly in the Amazon region, has been difficult since the 1980s. In December 1988, the assassination of environmental activist Chico Mendes turned the national and international spotlights on the environmental and social struggles of the Amazon.

In 1989, the First Encounter of Indigenous Peoples put in check a project to build five hydroelectric dams on the Xingú River, in the eastern Amazon. The project remains paralysed today. That same year, another national meeting gave rise to the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB, Movimento dos Afectados por Barragens).

MAB estimates that dams in Brazil have displaced more than one million people, most of whom were not compensated or resettled.

“Jirau and San Antonio will jeopardise more than the 3,000 people predicted by the companies promoting the project: the government’s Furnas and the construction firm Odebrecht,” Wesley Ferreira Lopes, MAB coordinator in Rondonia, said in a conversation with Tierramérica.

“MAB is organising the population to resist the project through legal means, but also for confrontation to the ultimate consequences, if they build the dams,” he said.

The activist fears that later the now-abandoned project for a major water transport route on the Madeira River will be renewed, in order to transport an expanded production of soybeans and other grains for export – which would also drive deforestation of the Amazon.

“Specialised studies have pointed out that the bed of the Jirau reservoir could rise six metres from sedimentation, which could widen the flooding, reaching Bolivian territory,” says Glenn Switkes, of the non-governmental International Rivers Network.

But Brazilian official Muchagata, of IBAMA, says “the environmental impact study of the project predicts an intense deposit of sediments initially, but which would reach equilibrium after 10 years. If it elevates the reservoir bed, the volume of water would be reduced, without surpassing the limits of capacity.”

“All of these questions can be presented at the public hearings in mid-November. The process is open to all who are interested, and allows for introducing changes if serious problems arise,” he said.

Once the challenges have been resolved, licensing would be granted to begin construction, subject to regulation and controls until final authorisation.

Private entities and government authorities in the energy sector say a delay in construction of the Madeira dams will increase the risk of electricity shortages in Brazil. However, not everyone agrees.

“Unless the economy grows much more than predicted, there won’t be problems until 2010, and there are thermoelectric and natural gas plants in case of emergency,” says Luiz Pereira, director of the non-governmental Institute for the Strategic Development of the Electrical Sector.

“It’s wrong to describe the environmental demands as ‘obstacles’, as those who are pressing for quick authorisation do. But the environmentalists exaggerate sometimes too,” he told Tierramérica.

The fact that Brazil shares the Madeira River with Bolivia does complicate the energy projects, but its bilateral exploitation would be beneficial, according to Pereira. “Energy integration is a good solution for Brazil and South America, with the aim of overcoming dominant sources of energy, like Bolivian natural gas and the gigantic hydroelectric Itaipú dam, which Brazil shares with Paraguay.”

(*Mario Osava is an IPS correspondent. Originally published Oct. 14 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 and the United Nations Environment Programme.)

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