Brazil Grants Environmental License to 11,000-MW Amazonian Hydro Project

The Brazilian government granted an environmental license to the controversial 11,000-MW Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest on Monday in hopes that the $17 billion project will help the country cope with growing demand.

Concern has been voiced about the project’s impact on the environment and on native Indians. The initial project was abandoned in the 1990s amid widespread protests both in Brazil and around the world, reported the BBC.

Brazil’s Environment Minister Carlos Minc said 97 square miles of land near the Xingu River in the northern state of Para would be flooded by the Belo Monte dam, a fraction of the 1,900 square mile in the original plans, which had involved four hydroelectric dams.

The environmental license will require the company selected, after a bidding process, to build the dam to fulfill some 40 requirements, including conducting more studies, building local infrastructure, and picking up the cost of rehousing an estimated 12,000 people who would have to be relocated. It has been estimated that the winning bidder could pay some 1.5 billion reais ($803 million) to fulfill these demands.

When it is completed, Belo Monte would be the third largest hydroelectric dam in the world, after the Three Gorges in China, and Itaipú, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay. Among utilities expected to bid to build the dam are Brazil’s state-run Electrobras.

Sources: BBC, Ministério do Meio Ambiente