Study will assess the socio-environmental impacts of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam

Emilio Moran, from Michigan State University, will coordinate a FAPESP funded research about the effects of the construction of the dam on urban life, on agriculture and on the local population to be resettled.

By José Tadeu Arantes

Agência FAPESP – A scientific study will examine the social and environmental impacts of the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam near the city of Altamira in the state of Pará. The study, entitled “Social and environmental processes that accompany the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, Altamira, PA,” was granted FAPESP funding through its São Paulo Excellence Chair program (SPEC) that arranges for top-notch scientists from abroad to come to Brazil to create research nuclei in São Paulo universities.

The study is being led by Cuban Emilio Federico Moran, professor at Michigan State University, in the United States, currently associated with the Center for Environmental Studies (Nepam) at the University of Campinas (Unicamp). With extensive experience in Brazil, the result of four decades of research into the changes that affect the Brazilian rural sector, especially in Amazonia, Moran is coordinating a multidisciplinary team of researchers from several Brazilian universities, centralized at the Nepam.

The fieldwork is in the early stages of implementation in Altamira. Research is expected to continue until August 2018. Participating in the team are scientists from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, the Federal University of Pará and the State University of Pará.

“We’ll begin with a survey of the impacts on the urban population,” Moran, in Altamira, told. “My colleagues and I have developed a questionnaire to understand how construction of the hydroelectric dam is affecting the older residents who are already here. Then we’ll focus on the newer residents who came because of the project: laborers, merchants, engineers, professionals of all types.”

“We also want to determine what effect the dam is having on agriculture, which is very productive in this part of Amazonia,” the researcher continued.

“I’ve studied this area since the 1970s, when I first visited the region to conduct my doctoral research. The rural sector seems to be facing two possible scenarios. The urban population could grow as a result of the hydroelectric dam and thus cause an increase in the demand for food and promote an agricultural boom in the region. Or, field workers could be attracted to the project and thus lead to a decline in family farms due to the absence of laborers in the agricultural sector. Initial observations are pointing in this direction, but we’re just beginning our studies,” he said.

A third line of research will monitor the population along the river. A contingent of 20,000 people is expected be resettled because of the dam.

“We’re going to closely monitor this native population, which will be affected most directly. Because the indigenous people were able to get the company to change the plans for the dam, they will not be affected directly but will be affected indirectly. But the riverine population will undergo extensive resettlement: many riverine communities will have to move and are, in fact, already being removed from the area,” said Moran.

According to the researcher, the term “riverine” may also apply to a portion of the urban population because areas with structures built on stilts along the banks of the Xingu River will be flooded by the dam. These areas are inhabited by riverine people who are in the process of transitioning from an isolated existence in the middle of the forest to a life with access to health, education and other services available in urban areas.

One of the tasks of the research study team during its initial months of activity will be to conduct an exhaustive study of the existing international literature regarding the socio-environmental aspects of hydroelectric dams. There are large-scale projects in China, India, Laos and even in other developing countries that could serve as benchmarks for the Belo Monte study.

Moran says that the preliminary observations in the area are allowing him to see that several of the problems experienced abroad are already beginning to appear in Pará.

“The population of Altamira has doubled in the past two years and has already reached 150,000. And these people were promised that a number of things would be done that have not been done in time,” he commented. “So now Altamira has exhausted its capacity in terms of hospital beds, slots at schools, security personnel, etc., resulting in a chaotic situation for everyone in the city.”

“The overgrowth should have been accompanied by substantial investment in equipment to serve this new population. The research could show how we should act in building future hydroelectric dams to reduce the social and environmental costs of large projects like Belo Monte,” Moran said.

“We hope to come up with proposals for a plan that considers people to be as important as power generation,” the researcher added.