August 08, 2023

Hydro-generated electricity? Not at nature's expense

topic:	Indigenous people
located:	Brazil
editor:	Ellen Nemitz

Xingu is a river situated in the Brazilian Amazon Forest, and serves as the location for the hydroelectric plant of Belo Monte, which has been operational since 2015. According to Agência Brasil, a State press outlet, Belo Monte has the capacity to provide approximately 10 per cent of Brazil's total energy consumption.

The operation of Belo Monte, however, comes at a significant environmental cost. In order to sustain its operations, a staggering amount of water, up to 70 per cent of the Xingu River's total volume, is diverted from its original course.

According to the civil society articulation Xingu+, the Belo Monte dam's most significant impacts include the forced displacement of riverine communities without adequate restoration of their traditional ways of life, a decline in fishing resources that undermines the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and a reduction in water flow, leading to various consequences for local ecosystems.

As indicated in an animation video produced by the Yudjá Mïratu Association of the Big Bend of Xingu, the Socio-Environmental Institute and Federal University of Pará": "Any alteration in the flow of the waters of the Big Bend of Xingu affects several interdependent ecological and social processes, and the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant was built right there."

The dispute, alas, is ongoing. In 2021, indigenous and riverine people who live in the vicinity of  the Xingu river and rely on it for their sustenance had managed to get the justice system to suspend the "abusive diversion of the river course," which was causing the Xingu to dry out.

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that the tribes' constitutional right to be consulted prior to the launching of the project had been violated. 

Both the enterprise responsible for operating the hydroelectric plant and indigenous communities have independently undertaken monitoring efforts to assess the conditions of the river and its impact on life development.

While the company may be driven by economic interests, the communities, in partnership with environmental researchers, are solely concerned with nature's wellbeing. The collaborative effort between local communities and scientists has led to the development of a potential solution, although the disastrous impacts of the plant persist.

A proposed alternative to the current "Consensus Hydrograph," which has been deemed non-consensual, is the Piracema Hydrograph. This new approach takes into account the natural behaviour of fish to migrate upstream for spawning, known as piracema. 

The Piracema Hydrograph initiative, as highlighted in the promotional video, is grounded in ecological criteria and collaborative studies conducted by the Independent Territorial Environmental Monitoring of the Big Bend of the Xingu since 2014. These studies, along with the floodplain data provided by the company responsible for the hydroelectric dam, form the basis of the project.

The Piracema Hydrograph is capable of establishing "more adequate volumes for water flows and the periods of the year when they should occur to guarantee the vital cycles of fish," thereby allowing the "artificial pulse of the river [to be] more similar to the natural pulse."  

Now it is time for the regulatory agency Ibama to determine the action of decision-makers. 

In an open letter to the new Brazilian government dated January 2023, researchers from the Observatory of the Big Bend of the Xingu urged: "Listen to the traditional populations of the Xingu River and the scientific community, and intercede so that the impacts of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant can be properly mitigated."

Image by Jed Owen.