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dam-l LS: Endesa Casts Doubt on Ralco Dam Construction
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CHIP NEWS
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Date: August 3, 1999
Subject: Endesa Casts Doubt on Ralco Dam Construction
Source: El Mercurio, La Tercera
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ENDESA CASTS DOUBT ON RALCO DAM CONSTRUCTION.
Chile's largest power generator Endesa said it will decide in
September whether or not to complete construction of the
controversial Ralco hydroelectric dam, which threatens the ancestral
homeland of around 80 indigenous families.
Endesa General Manager, Spaniard Francisco Garcia, said the
company has invested 40 percent of the total US$500 million
required to build the project, but this didn't mean they had reached
a "point of no return."
According to various sources, Garcia confirmed the company's
belief that as long as the dam isn't built Endesa can always change its
mind, although this would mean losing some of the 40 percent
invested so far. Endesa will always find alternative sites to build on,
the sources said.
Construction of the Ralco dam would involve flooding 3,395
hectares of the upper Bio Bio valley with 1.2 billion cubic meters of
water. A central dam has already been built and if plans go ahead
the project will generate 570MW of electricity by 2002. Indigenous
Pehuenche inhabitants of the valley are campaigning to postpone
indefinitely construction of the dam. Endesa has been negotiating, so
far unsuccessfully, to reach an agreement whereby the families
would be relocated to an alternative site.
Chip News
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Monti Aguirre
Latin American Campaigns
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA. 94703 USA
Phone: 510 . 848.11.55 and 707 . 591 .91.49
Fax: 510 . 848.10.08
e-mail: monti @irn.org
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