Usina belo monte

ENG102-5
April 27th, 2012
The Price of Development
The Belo Monte Dam is a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River in the state of Pará, Brazil. The project started over thirty years ago, during the period of military dictatorship in Brazil, but it was shelved in 1989, under pressure from indigenous groups. However, with the new Growth Acceleration Program (or PAC, in Portuguese) that started in 2007, the project was brought up to the table again. The planned installed capacity of the dam will be 11,000 MW, which makes it the second largest hydroelectric dam in Brazil, and the third largest in the world. The dam is expected to cost $3 billion and the transmission lines will cost $2.5 billion, and it is being developed by the state-owned power company Eletronorte. (Blog Belo Monte). Because of its size and the necessity of a big flood area, the project brought numerous debates regarding its environmental impacts versus its future benefits. The project is criticized by environmental organizations as it will flood 400 square kilometers of agricultural lands and forest and will directly impact the Paquiçamba reserve of the Juruna indigenous people, while other experts argue that Brazil needs another hydroelectric power plant, in order to supply the demand for energy, which has increased a lot in the past years. As one of the most current events in Brazil, the construction of the Belo Monte Dam will be explored in this essay, and due to the numerous arguments regarding this issue, the opinion of some experts will be taken into consideration, in order to develop a constructive idea about this topic.
The Brazilian government specifically highlights the improved design of the dam, the technological advancements since the previous proposal and the concept of minimizing possible socio-environmental impacts upon the region. The “mitigation initiatives” include “the management of the threatened fauna and the creation and maintenance of ecological reserves in the