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dam-l LS: Courts Reject Lawsuit Against Ralco Project
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Date: April 18, 2000
Subject: Courts Reject Lawsuit Against Ralco Project
Source: CHIP News
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The Santiago appeals court threw out a lawsuit late last week aimed at
halting work on the controversial Ralco hydroelectric dam project.
The lawsuit was filed by the indigenous Quintreman sisters against
power company Endesa, which is in charge of the project, and the National
Environment Commission, Conama, which gave the company the environmental
seal to go ahead with it. The court agreed to review the lawsuit in
September 1999 but allowed work to continue until it decided to reject it
outright last week.
Still, environmentalists and indigenous families opposed to the
project are still awaiting a decision pending on two other lawsuits
against the project. One contests Endesa's claims to water rights in the
region. The other accuses both the Economy Ministry and the former
President of the Republic of breaking the law by approving two decrees
that granted Endesa the rights to operate the hydroelectric generator and
corresponding transmission lines. Both
these decrees were approved before the end of the Eduardo Frei
administration in March.
Environmentalists and nine indigenous families are opposed to the
construction of the Ralco dam arguing it would flood indigenous ancestral
homelands in the upper Bio Bio valley and cause damage to a unique
ecosystem.
Around 18 percent of the 570 megawatt dam has been built and
US$160 million of an estimated US$540 million already invested.
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Ignacio Fernandez
International Rivers Network