NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).
Number 485, April 4, 2003


The United Nations has declared the year 2003 as the "Year of Fresh
Waters". In Brazil, many groups struggle to preserve and protect the
water; however, the building of dams has greatly affected the quality and
accessibility of water. This week´s SEJUP focuses on the work and
struggle of the "Movement of those Affected by Dams" (Movimento dos
Atingidos por Barragens) in Brazil.

The Movement of those Affected by Dams is part of the International Rivers
Network and helps local communities to support their rivers and to
encourage equitable and sustainable river development projects. In the
1970´s Brazil initiated the construction of large hydroelectric dams in
order to generate energy for industries. Vast areas of land were
expropriated. Still today, more than 20 million Brazilians do not have
electricity; 60% of these families are in rural areas. In addition, one
million people have been forced off their lands due to dam constructions.
Three and a half million hectares of land have been flooded. Those
affected by dams include small farmers, indigenous peoples, river-dwelling
populations, quilombo (former slave colonies) communities, and urban
dwellers. Many of these people lost their cultural roots because of their
expulsion from the land but have now organized to struggle for
resettlement on new land as well as indemnity. Their goal is to help
current groups affected by dam construction remain on their lands and to
preserve nature with an energy policy that takes human and environmental
needs into consideration.

Many studies conclude that dams do not attain their promised
objectives-they produce less energy, generate less water, and irrigate
fewer areas than promised. They normally are more expensive and take a
longer amount of time to construct than is projected. Along with this,
dams have not contributed to equitable or sustainable development; in
contrast, they have increased misery and social inequality among the
peoples affected by their construction. The construction of dams in Brazil
has met the economic and political interests of dominant and elite national
and international groups as well as the interests of electric companies and
dam-construction industries. There are many viable alternatives to dams
that have fewer social and environmental costs and that lead to the better
administration of water resources.

Current struggles among Brazilian peoples negatively affected by dam
construction include the following groups:
· Uhe Itaparica - 6,050 families in Barra do Tarrachil, Pedra Branca.
· Uhe Ita - approximately 400 families in Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Santa
Catarina.

The Movement of Those Affected by Dams has had some success in resettling
people and halting the construction of new dams. However, the struggle to
resettle populations or to stop the construction continues in many states
including São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goias Tocantins, Amazonia, and
Pará.


We invite you to send a letter similar to the one below that expresses your
concern about the energy generation plans of the Advance Brazil program of
the federal government. Letters may be sent to:
His excellency, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Her excellency, Minister of Mines and Energy, Dilma Rousseff
Her excellency, Environment Minister, Marina Silva
Address: Brasilia, D.F. Brasil 70.084-970

The following letter of the Campaign "Waters without Dam"s in the Amazon
Basin was approved by the participants in the II Pan-Amazon Forum, held in
Belém, Brazil, from 16-19 January, 2003.

Belém, 18 January, 2003
We, rural and urban workers, indigenous peoples, natural resource
gatherers, and river populations from Pará, Maranhão, and Tocantins states,
participants in the Campaign Waters without Dams in the Amazon basin,
analyzed at a recent meeting in Imperatriz, Maranhão, together with 160
people from 66 organizations, the projects for energy generation included
in the Advance Brazil program of the federal government, and their
relationship with mineral exploitation and agro-business plantations, in
the Araguaia-Tocantins and Xingu basins.
According to data from the map of hydroelectric potential (Eletrobrás,
1999) and of the Inter-American Development Bank, a total of 55 dams are
planned for our rivers, with 40 planned for the Tocantins and its
tributaries (31 large dams and 9 small dams), 10 for the Araguaia river and
the rio das Mortes, and 5 for the Xingu River.

Four of these are already in operation (Tucuruí, Serra da Mesa, Lageado and
Cana Brava), one is currently in construction (Peixe-Angical), four more
are in the licensing process (Santa Isabel, Couto Magalhães, São Salvador
and Estreito) and, for 2003, 10 more large dams are planned to be offered
to private investors Belo Monte, Marabá, Serra Quebrada, Araguanã,
Ipueiras, Tupiratins, Maranhão, Torixoréu, Novo Acordo and Mirador).
Besides these dams, other large-scale projects are being planned, or are
already being implanted in the region, including construction of the
Araguaia-Tocantins Hidrovia and more than 10 agrobusiness projects, which
will have cumulative impacts on the human populations of the region and the
environment. An example of the negative impacts brought to the Amazon
region with the implantation of these projects can be taken from Tucuruí
and Lageado dams:
· Disappearance of fish species (surubins, dourada, jaú etc), which are the
basis for the diet of local populations, given the great quantity of
biomass rotting in the water and the appearance of aquatic plants, which
obstruct creeks; damming of rivers with the resultant impacts on the
reproductive cycle of fish;
· Expulsion of affected populations from their homes and lands, without
guarantees of a minimal infrastructure needed for their dignified survival;
· Loss of lands which bring life, employment, and cultural identity for
traditional populations (indigenous peoples, riverbank dwellers, babaçu
palm nut gatherers, etc.)
· Loss of biodiversity, of the productive capacity of farms downstream and
proliferation of mosquitoes in affected areas and in the region;
· Swelling of slums in nearby cities and an increase in urban violence and
unemployment;
· Climate impacts, especially regarding rainfall and temperature;

Even after having experienced all these problems, the same errors are being
made. The Environmental Impact Assessments which were or are being produced
for these dam projects in the region do not take the local population into
account, present technical discrepancies, and are based upon fragmented
studies which fail to consider the cumulative impacts of multiple dams in
the basin. It is necessary and urgent to think of other alternatives for
energy generation, based upon clean energy sources, such as wind, biomass,
and solar, besides the reduction of losses in the current electrical system
and the retrofitting of dams already in operation.

Faced with this situation, the organizations present at the meeting
reaffirm their commitment to the preservation of the rivers, ecosystems,
and their respect for local populations in the Araguaia-Tocantins and Xingú
basins, and they propose: (i) the opening of a discussion with the
government team so as to propose a moratorium on licensing and construction
of dam projects in the region so that, through an evaluation of the
cumulative impacts of these dams and of alternatives to them, the country's
energy policy may be revised, so that there will be an end to the damages
suffered by local populations and the environment; (ii) the launching of a
Congressional investigation to investigate the impacts and human rights and
environmental violations caused by the construction and functioning of
hydroelectric dams in the Amazon basin, taking measures to correct these;
(iii) to promote policies in the area of science and technology for
research on clean energy sources and alternative forms of energy generation.

(Source: Movimento dos Atingidos Por Barragens, International Rivers
Network, March 2003)
Participants in the I Inter-State Encounter on Dams on the
Araguaia-Tocantins and Xingu, 9-11 December, 2002, Imperatriz, Maranhão,
Brazil.
Fórum Carajás, Fórum da Amazônia Oriental (FAOR), Movimento dos Atingidos
por Barragens, Movimento pela Preservação dos rios Tocantins e Araguaia
(MPTA), Movimento pelo Desenvolvimento da Transamazônica e Xingu (MDTX),
CONTAG, CUT, FETAET, FETAGRI, IRN, ABONG-Norte, FASE, APA-TO, MEB, CENTRU,
AAE, CPT, CIMI-Altamira e Tocantins, CÁRITAS-Imperatriz, GTA-Regional
Altamira, ASMUBIP, ABIPA, CEPASP, STRs do Araguia-Tocantins, Movimento das
Comunidades Indígenas de Altamira e Povos Juruna da Volta Grande do Xingu,
Povo Apinajé, Gavião, Prefeitura de Imperatriz, Associação de Pescadores da
Ilha de Serra Quebrada, Diocese de Tocantinópolis.



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