By: The Indigenous People Or Caleb, Jenny, Pim and Joanna

Animal Species In The Amazon It is estimated that over a hundred endemic species will become extinct, the zebra pleco, a catfish with stripes, being just one of the many species that will be lost that live only in that area. There’s so many species that live in this area that no one really knows how many precisely. The Zebra Pleco Fish

Some of the species that will be Extinct The sunshine pleco The slender dwarf pike cichlid The plant-eating piranha The Xing u dart poison frog And many more that only live in/ on this particular part of the Amazon River Sunshine PlecoSlender Dwarf Pike cichlid Plant-eating Piranha

Big problem The big problem is that it will create 2 vast reservoirs, flooding 668 square kilometers, this killing not only fish but also mammals such as monkeys, anteaters etc. The reason that the death of the fish is so important is 1) Because these fish live only here and 2) Many indigenous people like us live off the river like the fish here.

How Much Energy Is Being Created? Firstly workers of the dam have installed a capacity of 11,233MW for the dam. But, only as little as 1000MW will be produce during the 3-4 month low water season. That’s just less than 10 percents of what is suppose to be produced overall. The average amount of energy that is going to be produced in a year is 4,462MW which us about 39% of 11,233MW.

What Is The Energy Going To Be Used For The government of Brazil claims that the Belo Monte Dam’s cheap energy will be used to power houses for the Brazilian families. But, in reality, only 70% of the energy produced will be sold for public consumption. Meanwhile the other 30% has been purchased by the State Electric Utility Electrobras which will be used for mining and other operations.

Why The Brazilians Need This Dam? There are 2 main reasons why Brazil needs the energy. One of them is that they are holding the Olympic games in Brazil in Also the second reason is that Brazil is also holding the World Cup in The events are only 2 years apart. You don’t need that much energy because Brazil already has a lot of dams. The World Cup and the Olympic Games will need lots of energy, but studies have shown that the people in Brazil already waste a lot of energy. If they waste less or use less they wouldn’t need this Dam. This dam is only used more making more energy.

About the Dam When this dam is going to be built, they are going to build 8 more to make it a fast flowing river/dam that never end. It sounds like it makes lots of energy but, When they build the other 8 dams they are going to make more indigenous people lose their homes, make animals be extinct or die and loss lots of trees in the environment (deforestation).

Pictures Of The Belo Monte Dam Before After Deforestation This part of the forest still needs to be cut down. This part of the forest has been flooded with water. This is where the hydro-electric power is made

Facts and Figures 80% of the Xingu river will have to be diverted from its original course, which will cause a permanent drought on the river’s ‘Big Bend’. It would generate 11,231 Mega Watts of electricity. Would be the world’s 3 rd largest dam. It would have a big group of two powerhouses, artificial canals, huge dykes, two reservoirs, spillways, ports, roads and work camps that would devastate more than 1,500 sq km of the Xingu River’s section. More than 38,000 people will have to be moved away just to make the dam.

More Facts and Figures At least 70 other dam projects are currently in planning stages for the Amazon region. The dam will flood about 500 sq km of the Amazon, displacing about 20,000 indigenous people, who claim that they have not been consulted by the government about the dam’ construction. For the dam to produce as much energy as demanded, they would have to build at least 60 more.

More Facts and Figures The Government will have to pay $800 million dollars to protect the environment, as well as meet 40 other conditions to be able to make the dam. The construction if the dam will cost about (US) $18.5 billion. The full cost of the dam is estimated to be about $16 billion. The EIA estimates that the dam will bring 100,000 migrants from the region in search for work, whilst driving.

Flooding The Bello Monte Dam won’t only cost millions to build, it will flood 516 square kilometres, 1/5 of the area already flooded by the Tucuruí, a hydroelectric dam of similar energy-generating potential built 26 years ago, also in the eastern Amazon. But the stretch saved from the flooding kilometres of the Volta Grande of the Xingú will have the opposite effect: permanent low water levels, because it would lose most of its water retained in a dam and channelled to a second energy-generating reservoir.

How many people will have to be relocated? Along that stretch live about 180 indigenous people and hundreds of non-indigenous rural families. The river is their main source of dietary protein and their principal transportation route. From this village, some of the local wild animals call home, like a monkey or a species of bird and all these animals would have to relocate, and that’s not the worst thing, some of these species of animal tat are not found anywhere else could become wiped out.

Another Look At the Complete Belo Monte Dam!