Belo Monte Dam Environmental Impacts

Impacts

The construction of the Belo Monte Dam has social, economical and environmental impacts. As mentioned above, the environmental impacts weren’t fully assessed before the construction began and neither were the social impacts. The plans for this project did not include public involvement (Bratman 2014). There is a great deal of opposition going on in Brazil because this project violates human rights of the locals and indigenous communities that reside there. Due to the fact that it is still under construction, the full extents of the impacts have not been measured. However, there are general impacts of dam constructions in Brazil that can give us a better picture of what other potential affects it will have socially, economically or

environmentally.
Environmental:
Although, hydroelectricity is supposed to be a form of renewable energy, it is not always environmentally sustainable.

Using other dam projects in Brazil as case studies, there are certain predictions made or scenarios created regarding some environmental impacts. The construction of the dam creates a reservoir which allows requires certain amounts of land to be flooded. This leads to loss of land, loss of biodiversity and deforestation. Furthermore, the construction of the reservoir will affect the water quality because residue waste from the construction can settle into the water (Sousa Júnior and Reid 2010). One of the major potential environmental impacts is the drying of a 100 km stretch of the Xingu River due to the two large canals that need to be constructed This would affect any aquatic organism living in the river through depletion throwing the ecosystem off balance. Even though the most recent proposal of the Belo Monte Dam, indicates that the flooded area will be smaller than before, environmentalists and other critics are concerned that this will lead to the construction of other smaller dams (Bratman 2014). This would require more construction materials and possibly lead to more deforestation. Although, the total deforestation percentage would be around 0.04% according to the proposal proposed by Norte Energia, the Amazon Rain Forest holds the most biodiversity and even a small amount can erase hundreds or organisms (Bratman

2014).
Moreover, there is controversy surrounding the idea of hydroelectricity as ‘clean energy’ because of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with it. First, ways of construction need to be taken into account because if greenhouse gasses can be emitted through the transportation of the materials and from the production of those materials as well. Second, “emissions from decaying biomass from land flooded by hydro reservoirs” is an eventual long-term issue that impacts the environment. (Gagnon and van de Vate 1997). Although, hydropower is a better alternative to fossil fuels, countries and companies need to thoroughly think about every bit of construction before implementing it.
Social:
National and international NGO’s and communities have tried to halt the project on the basis it adversely affects the local indigenous community living by the Xingu River because it is a violation of human rights.

The social impacts of this will be similar to the Tucuruı´ Dam of 1984. During that project, local communities were displaced, the people not directly within the area were still affected due to changes in the river and multiple indigenous reserves were flooded (Fearnside 1999). The Belo Monte Dam will also displace hundreds of local and indigenous. This particular project has also brought up the idea of land rights and indigenous culture in this area. The indigenous communities know how to live with the land and not exploit resources around them. In the late 1980’s, Brazilian government ratified a legislation acknowledging the “indigenous distinctiveness” (Jaichand

2013).
In addition, “hundreds of riverine communities, and [more than] 800 people from other indigenous ethnicities…will not be able to depend on the river for survival,” (Diamond and Poirier 2010, 27). The loss of biodiversity due to drying of a 100 km of the Xingu River also has a social impact on the local people because their source of food is diminished. This affects the communities’ means of living because the retreating river makes is challenging to use their boats to sell or buy products (Diamond and Poirier 2010).
Economical:
The idea of the Belo Monte Dam was to make the Amazon more economically available for the country and to prevent foreign countries from benefitting from it. The energy produced from the dam is more economically beneficial for the mining and other large extractive companies. The Belo Monte Dam project is also estimated to create jobs for over 18,000 people; however there will be a significant population migration to this region, similar to the construction for the Tucuruí dam (Hall and Branford 2012). As mentioned above, Brazil is spending close to $20 billion dollars for this dam project and may not make as much profit from it as expected. A small percentage of the funding for this project is coming from international agencies and could potentially accumulate more debt for Brazil (Cunha and Ferreira 2012). The construction of these dams require a lot of aluminum and during the construction of the Tucuruí Dam, Brazilian government subsidized large international aluminum companies, which led to losses for the government because the money goes out of the country (Fearnside 1999). The same scenario could potentially occur with the Belo Monte Dam project because aluminum is required for the construction of this dam as well. Essentially, this could cause Brazil to lose more money than it will gain from the hydroelectricity.
Future of the Dam:
The completion time of the dam is still unknown even though construction is already underway. It was protested in the beginning and is till being protested by the people who are being affected. Countries around the world have spoken up against the dam because of all the environmental and social impacts it will have. Certain villages along the Xingu River have already witnessed fish depletion and low water levels. The relationships between different villages and communities have also started to deteriorate because of the increased competitiveness for resources (Wegner 2013). Even though the dam hasn’t been fully constructed, people have already predicted the social, environmental and economic impacts based on other dam projects in Brazil. The impacts might be even more severe than predicted because the Norte Energia failed to comply with all the environmental preconditions and was allowed to begin construction without a thorough impact assessment. This top-down type of method does not take into account the public concerns or thoughts in general. It’s understandable that developing countries feel this pressure to pursue technological advancements; however, it should not take place at the expense of the people and the environment.