Brazilian Dams in Peru's
Jungle, to Supply Brazil
By Milagros Salazar
LIMA (IPS) - An energy deal that
Peru and Brazil signed this week in the
Amazon city of Manaus in Brazil is
opposed by environmentalists and local
indigenous communities in Peru where the
planned hydroelectric dams will be
built. What is at stake?
Peru has not yet calculated how much
energy its domestic market will need
from the dams to be built in the
Peruvian state of Amazonia under the
agreement signed Wednesday by President
Alan García and his host, Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Nevertheless, it has promised to provide
a fixed proportion of the energy
generated to Brazil over the next 30
years. And if Peru ever wants to
complain about and modify the energy
cooperation agreement, it can only do so
after 15 years, Deputy Minister of
Energy Daniel Cámac told IPS.
"What sense does it make to sign an
agreement without determining whether it
is what our country needs?" asked César
Gamboa, a lawyer who heads Law,
Environment and Natural Resources (DAR),
a local non-governmental organisation.
"Why don't we carry out the studies
first, before assuming commitments that
we might regret later?"
Deputy Minister Cámac said "a broader
analysis" is needed to come up with an
estimate of the country's energy needs,
and that "we will continue working
project by project to see how much is
needed."
Under the agreement, which began to be
negotiated in 2006 and is now pending
approval by the Peruvian Congress, a
series of dams built in Peru will
generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity,
and according to the government, a
priority will be put on domestic
supplies and surplus energy will be sold
to Brazil.
But engineer Alfredo Novoa, director of
ProNaturaleza, another local NGO, told
IPS that "Peru doesn't need energy
projects in the Amazon jungle to meet
domestic demand.
"There is a potential of 22,000 MW in
the Andes highlands and a similar amount
in the coastal area, why would we need
more?" he remarked.
This South American country has an
installed capacity of more than 6,000 MW
from different sources, which presently
covers demand. According to projections,
12,000 MW will be needed by 2020, and
20,000 by 2050, Novoa said.
By contrast, "Brazil, an emerging power,
will have a projected demand of 174,000
MW by 2030," he pointed out.
But in Cámac's view, Peru could need
much more energy than that, up to 25,000
MW by 2030. "This agreement opens up a
much larger market to us, and studies
will be carried out to reach an economic
balance between the two countries," the
deputy minister stated.
He said a set percentage of the energy
generated by each hydroelectric plant
would be sold to Brazil for 30 years,
although it is not yet clear what that
proportion will be.
As it stood in July 2009, the draft
agreement established that 80 percent of
the energy would go to Brazil and 20
percent to Peru in the first decade. But
in the face of protests in Peru, the
figures were eliminated from the energy
deal, and the proportions are to be
negotiated behind closed doors.
Cámac also said that the number of dams
and their specific locations are other
aspects that have yet to be determined.
"They might even be in the Andes, rather
than the Amazon," he claimed.
But the deputy minister himself has
referred in public to possible plans to
produce energy in the rainforest to sell
to Brazil, as IPS saw in two PowerPoint
presentation files prepared by the
official.
In a presentation at a May 2009
international seminar, Cámac included
two controversial projects on the list
of possible energy initiatives.
One is a dam on the Inambari river in
the Amazon jungle in the regions of
Cuzco, Madre de Dios and Puno in the
southeast, which will be the largest
hydroelectric dam in Peru and the fifth
largest in Latin America.
The other is the Paquitzapango dam on
the Ene river in the central department
(province) of Junín, where the Asháninka
indigenous community is concentrated.
And according to Gamboa, there are three
other plans in the pipeline: Mainiqui 1
in Cuzco and Tambo 40 and Tambo 60 in
Junín.
The total investment for the five dams
is estimated at 13.5 to 16.5 billion
dollars.
The flooding caused by the dams could
displace more than 4,000 indigenous and
non-indigenous people in Inambari, and
up to 10,000 people in Paquitzapango,
most of them belonging to the Asháninka
community, which already suffered forced
displacement during the 1980-2000 civil
war.
"Amazonia peruana en 2021" (Peruvian
Amazon in 2021), a book by Marc and
Diego Dourojeanni and Alberto
Barandiarán, says the Inambari reservoir
could have a major impact on the jungle
ecosystem.
The destruction of rainforest to make
way for the dam and reservoir could lead
to a nearly six percent rise in Peru's
greenhouse gas emissions, the book says.
"There are social and environmental
costs that have not been taken into
consideration," Gamboa said. "The
government is trying to gloss over the
details by talking about cooperation,
when in reality these are unequal
negotiations."
Brazilian companies would build the two
main dams. Inambari is in the hands of
the Egasur consortium, made up of two
Brazilian firms, OAS and the state-run
Eletrobras Furnas.
The concession for building
Paquitzapango went to Paquitzapango
Energía SAC, behind which is the
Odebrecht Group, a construction and
engineering powerhouse from Brazil,
according to Iris Olivera, the lawyer
for the Central Asháninka del Río Ene
(CARE) indigenous association.
Odebrecht project manager Cecílio Abrão
Jr. visited the CARE offices in May to
explain the supposed benefits of the
dam.
Olivera said the executive informed the
group that Odebrecht is in charge of the
feasibility study and that it forms part
of a consortium with Eletrobrás and
Andrade Gutiérrez, another Brazilian
construction company.
OAS -- the main shareholder in Inambari
-- Odebrecht, Andrade Gutiérrez and
Camargo Correa are responsible for major
construction projects and public works
which, financed by Brazil's state
development bank, the BNDES, are a
spearhead in Latin America and Africa.
And the projects involve suppliers from
Brazil because BNDES financing is
conditioned on the use of equipment and
parts from that country.
"This shows Brazil's economic interest
in carrying out projects using front
companies registered in Peru," Olivera
said.
For his part, Novoa said: "Peru is just
another pawn on Brazil's chessboard."
The attention of environmentalists and
indigenous groups is now focused on the
Inambari dam, which will modify the flow
of water in the Madre de Dios river,
which runs into the Madeira river in
Brazil's Amazon jungle, where a
multi-dam hydroelectric complex is being
built, the head of ProNaturaleza said.
That means that when the level of water
in the Madeira river is low, the
Inambari dam could help keep its
turbines functioning, he pointed out. |
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