Porto Primavera Dam Causes Environmental Disaster
8/4/97
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Headline: Porto Primavera Dam Causes Environmental Disaster
Source: Folha de S.Paulo
Date: 8/4/97
Dam which has taken 17 years causes environmental disaster
Source: Folha de S. Paulo, August 4, 1997
Distance between banks of Parana' River will be as much as
30 km, when the Porto Primavera dam reservoir is filled
The construction of Porto Primavera dam, on the border
between Mato Grosso do Sul and Sao Paulo, is causing an
environmental and social disaster in the region of the
Parana' River and its tributaries, according to complaints
by public interest lawyers and non-governmental
organizations.
One year from the completed filling of the lake, which will
be the third largest in the country, with an area of 220,000
hectares (the equivalent of 300,000 football fields), fish
are more scarce, areas of native forests rot under the
waters, and animals, displaced, are dying of hunger. Near
the dam, the mouth of the Baia River, considered a natural
"cradle" for fish, disappeared under the waters.
The distance from one bank of the Parana' River to the
other, never more than 700 m, is already 7 km, and should
reach 30 km in 1998.
"But the major damage is social. Hundreds of people had
their lives impacted by the building of the dam" says the
Mato Grosso state environmental secretary, Celso Martins,
38. In all, 4,000 families were affected by the project,
which took 17 years to construct.
Raul Carlos Broguinaro, 47, representative of farmers in
Porto Joao Andre', in Brasilandia, MS, with 300 families,
says that for two decades, agriculture stagnated - banks
refused to offer loans due to the announced flooding.
For Sadi Baron, 23, of the national secretariat of MAB, an
NGO which represents about one million dam-affected people
in the country - the riverine population "is always viewed
as an impediment to a dam project". According to him, more
than 1000 people who have not signed agreements with Cesp
(Sao Paulo Energy Company) will be expelled by the flooding.
Three weeks ago, a group of researchers, environmentalists,
representatives of city governments, and two public interest
lawyers, baptized as the "Green Mission", descended 400 km
on the Parana' River in 12 boats to view the impacts of the
project.
At the same time, governor Mario Covas announced an
agreement with construction companies to finish building the
dam, at a final cost estimated to be $8 billion (US).
The first resettlements bring the threat of unemployment and
destruction of communities. Ceramic workers and fisherfolk,
far away from their workplaces, are not managing to adapt to
the reality of "new Porto 15". The project by Cesp,
inaugurated in 1993, received 500 families from the old
district of Porto 15 de Novembro, in Mato Grosso do Sul,
which will be flooded in 1998.
According to businessman Eduardo Alves, 40, most of the
population is unemployed. He received a store and $13,000 US
from Cesp as compensation, but has lost most of the
customers he had in the old Porto 15. "The inhabitants are
lost. There (in the old town), they knew what work to do".
Joao Francisco Neves, 40, has four children and says he has
been unemployed for a year and a half in the new Porto 15.
"Many houses are closed down. People went elsewhere to look
for work."
Following a lawsuit, judge Elizabeth Anache of Bataguassu,
MS, ordered Cesp to create a fund for development in the
district. The judge also required the company to pay a $1.9
million (US) fine for not following environmental programs.
Lawyers entered with 22 suits
Mato Grosso's public defender's office has already obtained
ten restraining orders and seven decisions impeding the
functioning of the plant, through 22 civil lawsuits. All
restraining orders condition authorization to operate the
dam, which will be conceded by the State Secretariat for
Environment and Development, to Cesp's complying with
measures for compensation and for reduction of environmental
and social impacts. Edival Goulart Quirino, who considers
himself to be part of "the country's largest legal battle
against a dam" is studying another 14 actions against Cesp,
divided into four areas: planned clearing of vegetation
before flooding, creation of units of conservation,
replanting gallery forests along 500 meters of the banks of
the Parana' River, and compensation for social impacts.
Indians are transferred 6 times in 10 years
For problems with disappropriations of land, the indigenous
group Ofaie' Xavante has been already moved six times in the
past ten years. For months ago, the 14 Ofaie' families,
little more than 50 people, and nine "new" Caiua' indians
now part of the group, were resettled by Cesp in an area of
484 hectares.
The village where they lived, on the banks of the Paran'
River, will be flooded by the dam in 1998. Luzinete de
Moraes, 26, a white woman married to an Ofaie', Severino,
30, says that the proximity of the new village to
Brasilandia, only 7 km away, has led to an increase in cases
of alcoholism in the village. Ataide's wife, Zenaide Benita,
30, says that the Indians "buy a lot of whiskey, drink a
lot". According to Luzinete, they work on coffee
plantations and plant grass for cattle grazing.
Besides constructing 15 houses, a health center, school,
water tower, and community center, Cesp has promised to
provide basic foodstuffs to the Indians for two years. The
school, with a teacher from the town of Brasilandia, Mato
Grosso do Sul, attends 12 students from 7 to 18 years of
age, and 13 adults.
Dam will supply energy for 6 million
The first three turbines of Porto Primavera should be
operational in the second half of 1998, with a production of
300 MW/hour, sufficient to supply a city of one million
people. The other 11 turbines should be active by 2001.
Fully operational, Porto Primavera would produce 1,800
MW/hour, which would meet 20% of the demand of the state of
Sao Paulo.
The president of Cesp, Andrea Matarazzo, 40, says that the
company has made a "commitment" to carry out projects in
compensation and mitigation of damage caused by the dam, as
llisted in the Environmental Impact Study for the dam. He
feels that the "major disaster" of the dam was its 17-year
delay due to lack of money.
Owing to the size of its environmental consequences,
Matarazzo admits that it would be difficult to undertake a
similar project today, but he considers it vital for meeting
electrical energy demand for the South, Southeast, and
Central-Western regions.
He said that nearly $7 billion has already been spent,
including construction, interest, compensation payments, and
disappropriation of lands, and that an additional $1.1
billion will be needed to complete the project.
The discussion regarding damages and compensation should
heat up now with the analysis by the government of Mato
Grosso do Sul of the Environmental Impact Statement before
they concede the license to operate the dam. Cesp's
environmental director, Daniel Salati, 56, says that the
shortage of fish in the Parana' River is caused by years of
uncontrolled occupation of the region. "I do not deny that
the dams have influence on the situation of the river, but
they are far from being the greatest culprits". According to
him, the completion of the project will end the "anguish" of
hundreds of families. He believes that the principal problem
caused by the project's delay is social. Salati says that
deforestation of gallery forests and sewage releases into
tributaries are the factors (having nothing to do with the
dam, according to him) which most affect the river.
"Fishermen have complained about lack of fish in the Parana'
River since the 1970's". Salati believes that it is possible
to restore the river through a series of actions that Cesp
plans to undertake. "Restored, the lake which will be formed
by the dam could even become a tourist attraction", he
predicts.
The director of Cesp says that the company is buying a
10,000 ha. ranch to serve as a refuge for animals.