Brazil – The Belo Monte Dam

In 2013, approximately 201 Million people were living in Brazil, making it the biggest country in South America and the fifth biggest country in the world. Of course this population needs a vast amount of energy to handle daily life issues. This demand of energy makes Brazil the 8th largest energy user and the 10th largest energy producer in the world. Oil and other liquid fuels with 47%, followed by hydroelectricity with 35% and natural gas with 8% form the largest shares of Brazil's total energy consumption. Additionally, Brazil is consuming increasing amounts of biomass in both the residential and industrial sectors.[1] Geographically, the Brazilian landscape consists of about 50% rainforest, including a complex system of rivers like the Amazon and the Paraná. The Amazon rainforest is one of the most biodiversed tropical forests in the Americas with the highest biodiversity of plants species on earth. The other part of the countryside is diverse and is characterized by hills, mountains, plains, highlands and scrublands.[2] Due to the country’s large river system and its eight major drainage basins, Brazil wants to expand its hydroelectricity sector. The country already holds the second largest dam, after the Chinese Three Gorges Dam, the Itaipu Binacional dam. Currently the government is building the world’s third largest dam in the Amazon rainforest, the Belo Monte Dam, which is located on the Xingu River in the state of Pará. The project has been proposed in the mid-1970s and construction has been initiated in 2011. The dam is supposed to work at partial capacity in 2016 and will reach full power by 2019 to support the Brazilian government in their promise to reduce Carbon Dioxide emission by 40%, at a cost of $17 billion US-Dollar. Since the Belo Monte Dam was proposed in the mid-1970s, a controversy about the project has broken out.[3] The construction of the Belo Monte Dam causes numerous types of environmental problems. One of the problems is the land loss. The dam will consist of two dams with one large canal and two reservoirs, which will cover an area as huge as Chicago. This construction will lead to a deforestation of more than 6,000 km2 in the region. Furthermore up to 40,000 people could be affected by the dam and even banished from their homes.[4] This evokes a civil conflict between the government and the citizens living on the river. Due to the climate change, caused by the absence of the seasonal water flood, the biodiversity will be damaged. Many endangered unique species, which can be found only on the river, will extinct.[5] Another problem that is involved in this project is the lack of energy-efficiency. The full capacity of the Belo Monte Dam is 11,000 Megawatts, but this can only be generated if the Xingu River is overflowing which happens only for four months a year. The rest of the time, the dam can only generate less than its potential with 4,500 Megawatts. Based on the energy-efficiency problem, the dam will not be economically viable.[6] The last problem that Brazil encounters is the uncertain climate change prevention. Even though Hydroelectric dams are supposed to prevent green house gas emissions, it is questionable if the Belo Monte Dam is able to do this. While the dam is an alternative source for electricity, it admits a considerable amount of carbon dioxide and methane.[7] There are two different views of this conflict: the Pros and the Cons. The Brazilian Government fully supports the dam construction for economic development. The main sectors are Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), Eletrobras (Brazilian Electrical Centers), and Eletronorte (Electrical Centers of the North of Brazil). In addition the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development is funding the project. Corporate (alumino industry) and governmental discourses are working together with the objective of achieving rapid economic development. The indigenous tribe and local residents, which are directly affected by the dam are against the dam construction. In addition there are also other stakeholders like international environmentalists and social activists which critizise the „sustainability development“ of Brazilian government. The NGOs goal is to protect the environment as well as the human rights of the Brazilian population. Furthermore, the Brazilian National Indian Foundation states that the dam project will affect the people’s health and it may even cause several diseases.[8] After intensive research, the authors detected that the construction of such dams can eventually cause an overrun of costs. According to a study by Said Business School, Brazil’s Itaipu Dam suffered a 240% budget[9] overrun that affected the nation’s public finances for a long time. In this study it states that three out of four large dams suffered from these cost overruns, with an average of costs being 96% higher than estimated. Itapu Dam is producing the much-needed electricity for Brazil but it will likely never pay back the costs, which incurred to build it. Additionally to the costs, such huge hydroelectricity dams take an excessive time to build, approximately more than 10 years. Even though the construction caused many people to lose their homes, they had and maybe even still have a positive outlook on this project. To be specific, the citizens anticipated a decline in unemployment, as the government promised to create job opportunities due to this construction. It is true that the people are employed up to this date to build the dam. However, as soon as the project will be finished, the jobs will be eliminated, so the people of the Amazon rainforest will be without homes, money and jobs.[10] Last but not least, it can be said that the Belo Monte Dam is a prestige object. The government states, that as long as the Belo Monte Dam can generate electricity in time for the Summer Olympics in 2016, all of the problems would be worth it. To sum up, Belo Monte Dam would be well advised to think in a long term, rather than in a short term.[11]

References:
Amazon Watch (2013): Brazil´s Belo Monte Dam. http://amazonwatch.org/work/belo-monte-dam [July 17th 2014]
Bourgoignie, A. / Galindo da Fonseca, P.(2011): The Belo Monte Dam Case in Environmental Policy and Law. eia US energy information (2013): Brazil http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=br [July 17th 2014]
Everitt L. (2014) : Do massive dams ever make sense? http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26512465 [July 17th 2014]
Hochstetler, K. (2011): The Politics of Environmental Licensing: Energy Projects of the Past and Future in Brazil. In: Springer Science + Business Media. p.369
Snider, E. (2013): Belo Monte Dam: the struggle for the Xingu River. In: ICE Case Studies.
The World Bank (2013): Brazil http://data.worldbank.org/country/brazil [July 17th 2014]

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[1] eia (2013)
[2] The World Bank (2013)
[3] Bourgoignie / Galindo da Fonseca (2011)
[4] Amazon Watch (2013)
[5] Snider (2013)
[6] Amazon Watch (2013)
[7] Snider (2013)
[8] Snider (2013)
[9] Everitt (2014)
[10] Hochstetler (2013)
[11] Hochstetler (2013)