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Panel 7:
Large Dams and Decision Making: Policy & Institutional FrameworksAbstracts of submissions -
Itaipu – A binational hydroelectric power plant, its benefits and
regional insertion This paper presents an overview of the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant, a joint development of Brazil and Paraguay carried out by ITAIPU Binacional, the entity created and owned in equal proportions by both countries to build and operate the hydroelectric complex. It portrays a brief description of the Project from its inception up to the present date, mainly from the viewpoint of its benefits to the States and Municipalities directly impacted by this undertaking and the regional integration of the power plant. With an installed capacity of 12,600 MW, represented by eighteen generating units of 700 MW each, Itaipu is the largest hydroelectric power plant currently in operation in the world. It accounts for about 25% of power production in Brazil and 80% in Paraguay, and, as such, its existence and operation are absolutely essential for the economic growth of these Latin-American countries and for the well-being of their populations, in view of the importance of the electric power to their economies. It is sufficient to say that from the date its first generating unit went on line, May 1984, up to July 1999, Itaipu has generated 820,000,000 MWh, a figure equivalent to the entire power production of Brazil over two years. Figure 1 shows the layout of the Itaipu Power Plant. In this paper, however, special emphasis is given to a unique aspect of Itaipu’s social and economic relationship with the local communities, which involves the impressive amount of about US$ 13 million that is being paid on a monthly basis by the Entity to each of the partner countries as royalties for the use of the Paraná river waters to produce electric power. In Brazil, about 38% of that amount is distributed by the federal government among the municipalities proportionally to the areas of their respective territories that have been lost to the reservoir, and about the same amount is paid to the State of Paraná. By this means, the social benefits are enormously amplified. Indeed, ITAIPU accounts for the fact that the population living near the reservoir receives an income that is in all respects comparable with, or even larger than, that which would otherwise be obtained from other economical developments of the flooded areas. This prodigious source of income has played a pivotal role in the social and economic development throughout the region influenced by the power plant and its reservoir. This review also focuses on the physical impact of the hydroelectric complex on the territory where it has been implemented and the steps taken by ITAIPU Binacional to preserve the environment and guarantee a smooth integration of the Project to the surrounding region. Citizens Participation and the Anti-Dams Law of the Province of Entre Rios,
Argentine Republic Environmental Law Institute of the Entre Ríos Lawyers' Guild I- The political decision Given the serious alterations suffered by rivers in the basin as a result of large-scale engineering works and inappropriate technologies, the environmental organizations of Entre Ríos Province, Argentina, organized a significant campaign to inform the public and to promote a public debate regarding the serious social and environmental impacts that the Paraná Medio dam, being promoted by the government, would cause to the region in which it would be located. This mega-project was promoted for the third time in 1996-1997 by decrees of the Federal Government (1) and project suppporters in the provinces that would be involved in the project (Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Corrientes and Chaco). II- Its social and ecological impacts "Paraná Medio dam, aggressively promoted by officials of the national government and the provincial government of Santa Fe, proposes to form an artificial lake of 760,000 hectares, five times the size of Yacyretá dam reservoir, which would be very inefficient from the point of view of energy generation given its low energy production per hectare flooded. More than 400,000 hectares of islands and island forests would be below water, irreversibly losing a complex and unique ecosystem, called by some experts the Pantanal of the Parana, of which only 1% of its biodiversity is known, according to researchers at the National Limnology Institute (Santa Fe, Arg.). Currently, more than 30,000 people base their economic sustenance on the middle Paraná and another 100,000 benefit indirectly from the river. The construction of the dam would destroy their style of life forever. This cannot be compared to the precarious 7,000 temporary jobs which the construction of the dam would generate for 7 years. The quality of the largest freshwater reserve in the country would degenerate significantly, which by remaining stagnant in a warm climate, could favor the spreading of diseases such as schistosomiasis, malaria, dengue fever, and colera. Other predictable impacts include reduction in fishing and in tourist resources, salinization of vast extensions of productive farm lands, to the west of the lateral dike, as well as the wearing away of the river banks in Entre Ríos". (2) III- An example of citizen participation and democratic debate Between February, 1996 and September, 1997, a strong and fascinating social debate was carried out. Citizen action was carried out on diverse fronts, involving educational institutions, researchers, academics, professionals, and productive sectors. They participated actively in the Official Commission "of evaluation and followup" in the province which debated EDI's (Energy Developers International) proposal and that of the National Government, managing to present two documents critical of and opposing the mega-project during 1996. Anthropologist Omar Arach (3), clearly writes regarding the instruments for action, coordination, and integratin of the forces and knowledge of the ecological and social organizations: "Among these, we can name:
This group of activities requires that the group must have resources (information, money, free time) to implement them, and must have an adequate position in society to turn them effective. This is a type of mediation (whether self-executed or by others) which can be characterized as "multiple mediation":
IV. Legal actions When the National Government issued its second Decree (December, 1996) and resolved to move ahead with its pro-dam position, civil society organizations in Entre Rios also resolved to take their case to the federal courts seeking a court order on environmental grounds, which within three months declared the Decree Inconstitutional, holding up to an Extraordinary Appeal at the level of the Supreme Justice Court of Argentina, where the National Government continues its petition at this highest level. These results had a significant public repercussion, including a Declaration by the Federation of Lawyers' Guilds of Argentina, supporting the court decisions. (4) It should be emphasized that this mega-project initiative was taken out of the Government's official plans for mitigating greenhouse gases, which had been pushed following the legal and legislative obstacles, and the high degree of social and political conflicts surrounding the project. V. An historic law Entre Ríos province passed law no. 9092 in September, 1997, which is known as the Anti-Dams Law, the only one of its kind in the world. The Law declares the province of Entre Rios to be free of new dam projects on the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers, a useful tool for avoiding new dams, besides being a summary of the popular will to preserve water resources and to use them in a sustainable way. Other communities throughout the Paraná River basin in Argentina are currently preparing similar provincial laws. We are supporting these parliamentary initiatives, including national initiatives, which promote the cautionary principle, conservation and sustainable use of the Paraná River, its wetlands, and associated ecosystems. In this intelligent way, other similar legislative projects are being promoted in Santa Fe and in Misiones provinces, as clear examples of a tendency toward a uniform way of thinking which is developing in the Litoral and Mesopotamia regions of Argentina. In the same way, environmental NGOs accompanied the proposed law recently presented in Entre Rios which declares the middle Paraná River to be a Natural Protected Area within the context of a multi-purpose environmental development and management plan. This means there is an urgent necessity to establish inter-provincial organs which can assume responsibility for the protection and rational use of our rivers and wetlands. VI. A transcendent example of when a law is the fruit of the construction of a people. Without a doubt, we cannot but emphasize all the moments of citizen commitment and of common action which the intention to construct Paraná Medio Dam generated in the soul of our society. The attitude of civil society, to organize, to call on its own researchers, fishermen, ecologists, professional guilds, and producers' organizations, particularly those of small and medium-sized producers, and also - why not - their own political representatives, was what finally made the historic action possible for the river coast provinces and for the entire country, a law which means the Liberty of Rivers. As on that occasion, we should remark on the role of independent scientists and researchers and that of opposition legislators who were actors in the legal case that overturned the Presidential decree, and finally in their active participation in drawing up a single lawe which is the fruit of the mature social and political compact among people of Entre Ríos, which took place with respect, humility, and with a strong commitment to the future, which organized and active people, with their banners held high, against all odds, were able to constrain the most powerful interests, which concentrate economic and political power in this enslaved South America. With this experience based on convictions, utopias, and dreams, which moreover and essentially in this formidable case, permits us to continue believing in ourselves, our people, and their power to construct new hopes.
Impact Assessment and Hydroelectric Dams in Central
America. Legal Perspective The relationship between the economic benefits achieved by development and environmental degradation is evident throughout the world. Massive deforestation, soil erosion and agricultural decline are only a few of the problems of this high-level crisis, which has proliferated without safety and security measures. Central America faces the challenge of achieving a balance between its number of inhabitants, whose needs are increasing, and the base of natural resource base on which most development depends. Therefore, actions must be directed towards finding alternatives leading to sustainability, and to the survival of human beings and natural resources. Recent studies have demonstrated that the severity of the problem of this lack of balance, is related to three major factors: 1) rapid political changes, 2) fluctuating global economic forces and 3) regional poverty. These three factors are interrelated and inseparable. Political instability undermines economic development, confronted by the fast population growth that increases the number of people living in poverty and coexisting with the natural resources. The results of this situation provide fertile land for political chaos and degradation of biodiversity. Faced with this situation, the countries in the Central American region consider it necessary to create their own environmental model of development, where Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) emerges as a compulsory decision-making mechanism for activities susceptible to cause environmental degradation, such as hydroelectric dams. EIA must be at the core of any newly developed policies. In Central America, EIA-related policies timidly started being introduced only in the 1980's, mainly after international pressure by the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank, among other agencies. However, with the increasing strengthening of the conservation movement and rational resource utilization in the last ten years, a more mature approach has been adopted and initiatives prompting the utilization of this environmental management tool have been taken. Partially responsible for this change in attitude has been, without a doubt, the pressure that conservation groups have exerted over governments, with inquiries over high-level hydroelectric projects. One such example is provided by the planned Rio Pacuare Hydroelectric Development Project in Costa Rica, where a group of business people and NGOs have been questioning since 1987 the decision for the need to develop this project against the possible environmental impact. Different countries have elaborated general policies for application of EIA in the region, and offices charged with assessing and monitoring mitigation and control measures have been established. The objective therein is for Environmental Impact Assessment to become a technical and political tool in Central America, used by states and citizens to sustain and redistribute environmental assets. This is, however, still a preliminary phase of utilization of modern techniques such as so-called green taxes, territorial planning, environmental audits and mitigation and control measures, among others. After the creation in 1989 of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development and the Central American Agenda for Sustainable Development, there is an adequate political framework to adopt and launch Environmental Impact Assessment in the region. Additionally, Central American countries assume international responsibilities after ratifying international agreements related to EIA, such as the Biological Diversity Convention, the Joint Declaration of Meetings of Heads of Estate and Governments of Central America (TUXTLA II), the Rio Declaration on the Environment (1992) and Goals and Principles of the EIA (PNUMA, June 1987). At a Central American level, there are regional agreements on the environment that partially emphasize the need for using EIA. However, there is no explicit agreement on this matter, producing divergences on requirements between countries and the competency to attract investments with minimal requirements of environmental quality. For this reason, the Presidents of the Central American countries established, in 1994, a mandate to promote EIA in the region, and to work towards achieving a regional agreement on this matter, which is as yet not elaborated. At this moment, support from international cooperation could play a major role in the development of EIA in the region as a tool to assist decision-making on environmental matters. The poverty situation in Central America leaves little room for investment on the environment, which would markedly help optimizing the utilization of available resources. To build, or not to build, hydroelectric dams, is a debate at the heart of good decision-making by governments if EIA does not provide the necessary and trustworthy instruments to adequately meet these decisions, our natural resources will be lost. Decision Making Processes, Social Control, and the
Privatization of the Electric Sector Throughout the 1980's, accompanying the democratization process in Brazil, as throughout Latin America, pressure from civil society, the emergence of environmental movements and the resulting dissemination of concerns regarding environmental preservation and, above all, the resistance of dam-affected populations led the Electric Sector to progressively incorporate social and environmental questions into its agenda. In 1986, Resolutions 01 and 06, of the National Environment Council (CONAMA), created rules for carrying out Environmental Impact Studies (EIAs) and Environmental Impact Reports for environmental licensing of large-scale water projects. New Federal and State Constitutions, at the end of the 1980's and beginning of the 1990's also marked the advance of state legislation and the creation of environmental agencies on the state and, in many cases, the municipal level. In this sense, the period was of enormous importance for the conception, creation, installing, and consolidation of a legal-institutional apparatus which would permit - or force, in some cases - the companies of the Electric Sector to attend legal requirements, and led to a period in which environmental departments were created, in which technicians were recruted and trained who were capable of incorporating the environmental dimension into the planning and execution of hydroelectric projects, and last but not least, to conduct processes of negotiation with affected populations and their representative organizations. This process, in Brazil as in other Latin America countries, contributed to, and reflected, the process of political and social democratization underway, which has as one of its central elements the organization of different social segments and the growing social control over state companies and government agencies in general. The will to participate, accompanied by a rapid political-technical qualification by popular organizations and NGOs, expressed the extraordinary maturing on the part of societies which, after decades of authoritarian regimes, wished to discuss the socially injust and environmentally unsustainable development model implanted by the military rulers. The restructuration of the Electric Sector, following the canons of privatization of companies which furnish and distribute electrical energy and the concession of rights to exploit hydroelectric potential to private groups, broke the prior process, placing at risk much which had been gained in social and environmental terms. The new legislation regarding concessions completely omits treatment of social and environmental questions surrounding large-scale hydroelectric projects. The private consortia, which acquired electric companies and competed to obtain concessions, were, in most cases, without any prior experience nor qualification to handle social and environmental questions. On the other hand, based on the option of deregulation and a reduction of state functions, a series of public agencies were dissembled, with their functions being handled by the marketplace. A new regulatory agency is manifestly incompetent to deal with social and environmental questions. This break also has affected the interrelationship, developed over a period of ten years, between legislation for the electric sector, environmental legislation, and the project cycle. The environmental licensing process has been subverted in an absolutely irresponsible way, without clearly establishing responsibilities and functions of the executing agency, nor of environmental agencies, and creating an improvised no man's land in which it is acknowledged that the costs will be levelled against affected populations and the environment. In this context, the sectorial restructuration and privatization constitute, in practical terms, a huge threat to the political conquests and institutional advances of the 1980's and beginning of the 1990's. The absence of a consistent and broad public debate regarding the new institutional model, as well as its social and environmental implications on the other hand, are a sign of the will to take a step backward in experiences of participation and negotiation, making privatization, above all, the mechanism to frustrate social control and participation in the decision making processes and in the implantation of large-scale dam projects. Therefore, the impacts of the process of restructuring and privatization of the Electric Sector must be discussed. One must examine if, and in what way, the process underway tends to favor the intensification of an insensitive and irresponsible handling of the social and environmental impacts of large dams. Above all, the way in which, on the legal ans insitutional level, it may be possible to guarantee affected populations and civil society in general an effective participation in the decision making process and the effective control over the implantation process. To unmask the privatization and concession licensing processes, as well as to submit the emerging institutional-legal apparatus to a critical examination are central tasks for the WCD, since similar processes are taking place in various countries throughout the world. If the WCD plans to draw up guidelines and orientations for the future, it should scrutinize the nature, form, and consequences of the process of restructuration and privatization underway. Considerations about the future of the dams The current necessity in order to increase the supply of water on a sustainable base is not only a challenge for the engineers, but for everybody.There is no substitute for water which is a finite amount and should be utilised in a realistic way. Yet when the amount of potable water is judged to be more than enough to cover human needs, serious problems are faced. There are also significant spatial and time variations to consider. Short periods of intense precipitation are often followed by long periods of dry seasons leading to droughts. Population numbers are high in regions where few hydraulic resources exist; in Mexico, 80 percent of the population exists where there are 20 percent of hydraulic resources. In making an annual balance of the total of the global precipitation, approximately a third part, that is to say (38 820 km3), is registered like superficial flow, the rest returns to the atmosphere as evaporation or transpiration. Only 36 percent of the precipitation, that is to say 14 010-km3/ year, is available for use, either for extraction of the underground or superficial storage. The rest (24 810 km3) drains away through what are known as "unstable" portion of the glide. At a global scale, approximately 70 percent of the total of the consumed water is used for the irrigation and growth of cultivation, 23 percent for the industry and the remaining 7 percent for domestic and municipal purposes. In order to satisfy the demand of water more superficial reservoirs are required to modify the unequal distribution of the precipitation in time, and with the help of aqueducts and conduction, the bad spatial distribution. Thus dams play an important role; they are like projects of multiple purpose projects that satisfy the needs of human consumption, of agriculture, and provide the generation of energy. Dams also provide big benefits: the control of floods with the consequent protection to lives and properties in theflood plains and the creation of acuaculture programs and fishing, as well as opportunities for recreation. With the world's population reaching 5 500 million in the future, it will not be possible to fulfill the requirements of water for irrigation, demand for water and generation of electric power. There is a tremendous challenge to increase the distribution of water through the construction of new dams. At the same time these new dams will have to meet the requirements of social and environmental standards. Environmentalists and conservation experts have placed a lot of emphasis on the issue of environmental taxation. These experts have also played a vital and positive role in influencing the understanding of dam engineers, and have provided support for the planning and elaboration of sustainable projects. Large dams are not a purpose by themselves but permit a better use of hydraulic resources. The management plan of a river means storage of water in dry periods. Dams as projects of multiple uses can provide the following benefits:
The large dams allow improving the stages as for humidity and to tourist places. There are no substitutes for the dams for the handling of hydraulic resources. The engineering of dams represents the tip of lance in the engineering and regional developments. One should point out that 2/ 3 of the large dams in the world have been built in the last decades. It must also be pointed out that in the report of 37 thousand large dams listed in the ICOLD register, very few environmental impacts have been listed. Appropriate understanding and designing of impacts can reduce adverse action to the minimal. An illustrative example is the Aswan dam in Egypt which has not produced adverse effects in the Nile river; fundamentally because it was designed and built with bottom outlets in order to allow the runoff of the large floods of the Nile, allowing the passage of silt. The logical conclusion is that the use of hydraulic resources is not limitless; by being environmentally compatible, a project can observe certain limits. The professional organizations both national and international should take urgent measures in this context.
Copyright © 1998-2001 The World Commission on Dams |
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