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dam-l S.A. dam plans
ARGENTINE, BOLIVIAN DAMS ALARM JUNGLE
CAMPAIGNERS
By Stephen Brown
BUENOS AIRES - Argentina and Bolivia's plans to
build three dams on the Bermejo and Tarija rivers
have run into protests from environmentalists,
alarmed they will flood part of the Yungas rainforest
and two national parks.
Five consortia from Europe, Canada, the United
States and Latin America are involved in preliminary
bidding for the $540 million "Bermejo Basin" project,
up to half of which will be subsidised by the Argentine
government.
But the local partners of Greenpeace, Bird Life and
the World Wide Fund for Nature want to protect a
delicate ecosystem sheltering endangered jaguars,
monkeys, Taruca deer and trees that are home to 60
percent of Argentina's bird species.
Greenpeace has just failed to stop the NorAndino gas
pipeline being built across the Yungas in Argentina
by a consortium from Belgium, the United States and
Chile.
"That battle is lost and it was Argentina that lost out.
Now on top of the pipeline damage we have the
potential damage of the dams, which is much worse,"
Greenpeace biodiversity campaigner Emiliano
Ezcurra told Reuters.
The campaigners want Argentina's Congress to stop
a project that would flood part of a dwindling rainforest
known locally as "Yungas," in Baritu national park in
Argentina's far north and the Tariquia Reserve over
the border in Bolivia.
"When a country sets up a national park it does it for
all time, to preserve its biological diversity. Otherwise
it makes no sense," Santiago Krapovickas, of the
Ornithological Association of the River Plate, told
Reuters.
His group, local partner of British-based Bird Life,
says the flooding would harm species such as the
Yapu, a colourful relative of the thrush that builds
hanging nests.
But the bi-national commission in charge of the
project, COREBE, calls it a "tiny sacrifice" in
exchange for drinking water and clean energy for one
of Argentina's poorest areas.
COREBE's Argentine head Carlos Ibanez and chief
engineer Fernando Perez Ayala told Reuters the
dams had won support and a $3 million development
grant from the Global Environment Facility set up by
the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The three dams - Las Pavas and Arrazayal on the
Bermejo river, both bi-national, and Cambari on the
Tarija, which will be Bolivian - would help the
environment by "providing basic infrastructure for
sustainable development," said Ibanez.
The power supply would stop the destruction of trees
for firewood, they said, and though a total of 26,000
acres (10,500 hectares) would be flooded, only only
1,730 acres (700 hectares) of Baritu's total surface of
185,000 acres (75,000 hectares) would be affected.
"That's less than 1 percent, and it's an area of the
park that is of lower environmental value," said Perez
Ayala.
To compensate, the successful bidder will pay 14.2
percent of energy revenue or about $4.5 million a year
to fund projects such as a new biological corridor
between Tariquia and Baritu, currently separated by a
narrow strip of Bolivian farmland.
"The importance of tropical jungle for biodiversity is
very clear and we uphold that. We believe the
sacrifice asked to complete this project is tiny," said
Ibanez.
The dams would displace 300 Bolivian families who
will be offered compensation or resettlement at a cost
to the project of $7-10 million. The dams would
generate 1,300 gigawatts of electricity a year and the
plan is to compete them by 2003.
The five consortia bidding are:
- German's Philipp Holzmann , Argentina's Jose
Cartellone, Italy's Impregilo , Spain's Iberdrola and
Germany's Lahmeyer .
- France's Groupe GTM and Argentina's Techint and
Benito Roggio.
- IMPSA HQI: Canada's Hydro-Quebec Internacional
and Argentina's Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona.
- AES of the United States with local groups
Ingenieros Civiles Asociados SA de CV and CPC SA.
- Bolivia's Forti & Leon and Yugoslavia's
Energoprojekt.
(C) Reuters Limited 1998.