Brazilian judge halts Amazon dam construction
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100416/sc_afp/brazilenvironmentenergydam_20100416041929
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A Brazilian judge has cancelled the tender process for construction of the world's third biggest hydroelectric dam in the Amazon jungle and suspended a preliminary license issued for the site.
In his decision, handed down late Wednesday, Judge Antonio Almeida Campel upheld a request from the Federal Public Ministry in Para state seeking to have authorizations to build the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River withdrawn.
The dam's hydroelectric production capacity of 11,000 megawatts would come at the cost of submerging some 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of land and would "require excavations equivalent to the work needed to build the Panama Canal," according to the Public Ministry.
Campel told Brazil's Institute of the Environment not to deliver a new license for the dam and ordered the National Energy Agency to halt next Tuesday's call for tenders for the contract to build the dam or face a 570,000 dollar fine for "environmental crimes."
"The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam will exploit hydro-energy in areas occupied by indigenous people who will be directly affected by the construction and development of the project," the judge said in his decision, which is subject to appeal.
Belo Monte would be the second biggest dam in Brazil and the third biggest in the world, behind the 14,000 megawatt capacity Itaipu dam in southern Brazil and the massive Three Gorges dam in China, which has a capacity of 18,000 megawatts.
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In his decision, handed down late Wednesday, Judge Antonio Almeida Campel upheld a request from the Federal Public Ministry in Para state seeking to have authorizations to build the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River withdrawn.
The dam's hydroelectric production capacity of 11,000 megawatts would come at the cost of submerging some 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of land and would "require excavations equivalent to the work needed to build the Panama Canal," according to the Public Ministry.
Campel told Brazil's Institute of the Environment not to deliver a new license for the dam and ordered the National Energy Agency to halt next Tuesday's call for tenders for the contract to build the dam or face a 570,000 dollar fine for "environmental crimes."
"The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam will exploit hydro-energy in areas occupied by indigenous people who will be directly affected by the construction and development of the project," the judge said in his decision, which is subject to appeal.
Belo Monte would be the second biggest dam in Brazil and the third biggest in the world, behind the 14,000 megawatt capacity Itaipu dam in southern Brazil and the massive Three Gorges dam in China, which has a capacity of 18,000 megawatts.
READ MORE AT LINK
