The National Rivers Website, Rivers of Latin America:

The following news is assembled from postings from various sources, as a public service. The sponsors of this website do not assume responsibility for accuracy. Always double-check information before relying on it, especially when your safety is involved!

GENERAL RIVER ISSUES:

Dams wreak havoc in Latin America

Eight dams have been proposed or are under construction in six Latin American countries, threatening the local ecologies and traditional economic and cultural communities.

Construction companies and government officials are eyeing the money that will be generated by damming the Macal and Raspaculo rivers in Belize, the Tibagi, Zingu, and Ribeira de Iguape rivers in Brazil, the Biobio in Chile, the Beni River in Bolivia, the Bermejo in Argentina and Bolivia, and the Guamez River in Colombia. These dams are supposed to provide electricity for these regions in a bid to attain rapid modernity, but at the price of flooding rainforests, habitat for thousands of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and plants.

Also destroyed are the homes of thousands of local and indigenous peoples who will be forced to relocate to cities or other communities that lack the infrastructure to support such a massive influx. Protesters face a dangerous foe, however; in April, 2,500 Embera-Katio, an indigenous Colombian group, sought refuge with the Spanish embassy after one of their fellow anti-Urra I Dam opponents was assassinated in his home.

The violence stems from the billions of dollars at stake. Forty percent of Brazil's foreign debt is the result of investments in electric projects, while unknown millions have exchanged hands to ensure the projects go through. First-world construction firms, who have seen business drop in the northern hemisphere, have found success in marketing their technologies to national and local Latin American officials. The construction of the dams then creates a market for global corporations who buy the newly-privatized state-run electric companies, a changeover largely funded by loans from the National Development Bank in each country.

The World Rivers Review (www.irn.org ) has further information in its June 1999 issue, as well as a list of contacts.

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