09.09.2008
Tribunal processes Brazil for Rio Madeira Hydroelectric Plants

By: Paula Cassanda
Source: Agência Chasque

Porto Alegre (RS) – The proliferation of big hydroelectric plants has brought the Brazilian government in the bench of the accused of the Latin-American Water Tribunal on Thursday 11 of September in Antigua, Guatemala. The government was denounced by the Ethno-environmental Defence Association Kanindé for the construction of the Santo Antônio and Jirau hydroelectric plants on Rio Madeira in the State of Rondonia.

The Movement of Dam Affected People (MAB) is one of the Brazilian organizations participating in the tribunal. José Josivaldo de Oliveira, member of the national coordination of the movement, explains that MAB is against the construction of the dams which will cause, if constructed, adverse and irreparable damages to the environment and indigenous tribes and other local communities. For him, the plants will only generate huge profits for big companies.

He explains that “electricity production is the main goal when they are thinking of water resources. And in Brazil in particular this is generating huge profits. Dam construction in Brazil from the period of the colonels to our days has one goal, production of electricity and generation of huge profits”.

Oliveira suggests that water resources should be managed by the government. He believes that this is the only option so that Brazil does not have the fate of other countries where water is scarce or has to be imported.

He further points out that “there has to be change in technological terms to a certain extent, but there also has to be transformation of the consumption and distribution model which at the moment is under the control and at the service of private interests”.

The international tribunal is a space of debate on Latin American conflicts regarding damages to water resources and traditional, indigenous and riverine communities. The judgment follows normal tribunal procedures. The Brazilian government’s legal representative was officially summoned to defend the country.