Costs for generating power at the Santo Antônio and Jirau Hydro Power Plants on the Madeira River in Rondônia will be among the highest in the country, reaching nearly R$ US$ 65 per megawatt/ hour. Moreover, the cost of building the two dams should total over US$ 12 billion, a 129% increase over the amount proposed in the initial project in 2003.
This information is from the book "Muddy Waters", organized by Glenn Switkes of the NGO, International Rivers. The book was launched nationally today (4th) at 6 p.m., on a Talk Show at the iG website (www.igpapo.com.br), with specialists and journalists present to debate the major problems of hydro plants. Moreover, the Talk Show will allow public participation, who can ask questions through chat sessions. Learn more.

Economic feasibility of the Madeira Complex will be one of the topics of debate. According to the book, the Complex is “the biggest and most expensive project in the South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA), with a final budget of over US$ 20 billion”. The book reminds readers that this amount is nearly the GDP of Bolivia, one of the countries that will be impacted by the project. “This amount is nearly the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Bolivia – which, for the year 2007, was US$ 27 billion”.

The book also questions the financing of these plants by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). Almost 50% of BNDES funds are from the Workers Support Fund (FAT). “Therefore, BNDES is using workers’ money to promote and legitimate a Brazilian development model that transforms the country – and the region of Latin America and the Caribbean – into an export platform for low added value primary products with high costs to the environment and local societies”.

Risks
Another problem regarding the plants is with the banks that finance the project, which are beginning to be pressured by society to not be co-responsible for this predatory model in Amazonia. An example of this was the protest against Santander Bank, which took place in Madrid on the 19th of last month.

Spanish civil society organizations protested against the bank financing the Madeira plants and launched the campaign, “Not with my money”. “We want to present Santander’s activities in Brazil: forcing over 5,000 families to abandon their homes, increasing cases of malaria and annihilating indigenous peoples”, explain the campaign organizers.
The campaign intends to hold Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) banks accountable for investing in projects that negatively affect the Amazon Region. A risk to banks that need increasingly to act responsibly on environmental issues in order to remain competitive on the market.

Madeira River
The Madeira River is the largest tributary of the Amazon River and one of the most important in the Amazon Region. In Rondônia, two hydro power plants are in the licensing phase, called the Santo Antônio and the Jirau, which jointly should produce almost half the power generated by the Itaipu hydro power plant.

Construction of the plants is a subject of intense pressure by social and environmental movements, due to the project’s impacts on the environment, local communities and indigenous peoples. Despite this, the government has already auctioned off the construction of the plants, alleging that they are the only solution to stave off power rationing beginning in 2012.

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