The Brazilian government has taken the first steps that will allow an immense hydro-electric project to start being built deep in the Amazon rainforest. The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam represents one part of a more extensive Amazonian development plan, and it will cost $17 billion to build.

Sited on the Xingu River, the dam will provide Brazil with a new stream of electricity flow, but its location has proved controversial, with environmental concerns raised over how it might affect people living there, for one.

Belo Monte Dam: Brazil

The government’s issue of a licence for the Belo Monte Dam’s construction in Brazil is an invitation for companies to bid for the contract for this. A linked clause is that the winner will have to pay substantial environmental protection costs. Additionally, it will be compelled to meet 40 strict conditions.

Speaking on February 1st, 2010, Carlos Minc – the Brazilian Environment Minister – stressed that the dam’s scope had been reduced significantly compared to original plans. The dam, he said, would flood 500 square kilometres of land when it was up and running – one-tenth of the area it would have covered initially. Ecological factors were the trigger for its downgrade, he added.

“The environmental impact exists but it has been weighed up, calculated and reduced”, Minc asserted.

Amazon Dam

The new Amazon dam will have a capacity of 11,000 Megawatts – sufficient to rank it third-largest in the world, and to electrify no less than 23 million homes in Brazil.

According to environmental campaigners, the dam will impact on local ecosystems to the extent that some fish will be imperilled. In reference to this, Minc said that procedures would be put in place to stop these fish dying out, and to ensure that fishermen would still be able to make a living.

It is understood that Brazilian bank BNDES will finance as much as 49 per cent of the Belo Monte Dam’s overall costs. The remainder will likely come from private investors, and they will get the chance to bit for shares later on this year.

See also:

Ethiopia's New Hydroelectric Dam

Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Drops 45 Per Cent