They don't ask for much. The Belize Association of Non-Government
Organizations simply seeks a fresh environmental assessment on a
proposed hydroelectric dam that Canadian operator Fortis Inc. is busily
constructing on the Macal River, flooding more than 1,000 hectares of
Belizean rainforest.
Two days of Privy Council hearings in London last week can be summed up
in the concise phrase of the unnamed law lord who pondered the
proceedings and wondered why all the relevant facts pertinent to the dam
construction had to be "squeezed out in dribs and drabs."
Excellent question: Why?
Here's a big fat fact that stands out. While Fortis' commissioned
environmental assessment asserted that the groundstone in the area in
question is granite, and thereby just the thing for dam construction,
the foundation material has since been proved to be ... not granite, but
sandstone.
Fortis has offered verbal assurances to concerned environmentalists, the
people of Belize and the Privy Council that this distinction matters
not. Ergo, all systems go.
I've studied enough post mortems on megaprojects to suggest that the
more astute course of action is to order a fresh, independent review.
The Chalillo Dam project has been in and out of the news for years,
drifting in initially as U.S. operators first became
entangled—backstopped by British money— in the privatization of Belize's
electricity sector, and then waxing and waning as environmentalists
itemized the ecological damage that will be ushered in as a by-product
of Chalillo.
It's issues such as these that force dimwits such as me to learn: that
the scarlet macaw is in very short supply, with current population
estimates running at about 200 birds. That the resoundingly beautiful
red parrot is extremely fond of the Macal river basin. That they like to
tour about in small groups and call to each other in what has been
described as "raucous hoarse voices."
The scarlet macaw — and the black howler monkey and the tapir, for that
matter — is in the line of fire, as it were, of the Chalillo project,
which sits upriver from the town of San Ignacio (population: 14,200). A
line-up of celebrities, including but not limited to Cameron Diaz and
Harrison Ford, have lent their names to the stop-Chalillo movement.
Through the narrative, downstream habitat preservation has lost out to
the bigger push of the Belizean government to cut deals with a series of
private-sector suitors, going back to the likes of the Virginia Electric
Power Co. in the mid-'90s. Beginning in the late 1990s, Fortis grew a
presence in both the transmission and distribution of electricity in
Belize through the country's monopoly operator, Belize Electricity Ltd.,
in which it now owns a 67 per cent interest, and Belize Electric Co.
Ltd., or Becol, of which it owns 95 per cent.
(The remaining 5 per cent of Becol is held by the government of Belize.)
The rainforest expansion, commencing with Fortis making investments in
Belize Electricity via two Cayman Island subsidiaries, always seemed
unlikely for the St. John's-based company, whose primary assets include
Newfoundland Power Inc. and Maritime Electric Co. Yet Fortis has emerged
as the owner and operator of the Mollejon hydroelectric facility, which
sits downriver from the new dam.
It's a key point. The Mollejon has been a chronic underperformer,
consistently operating below capacity in the dry season, leaving Belize
to import electricity from Mexico. The Chalillo dam is meant to redress
that problem and add new capacity for the electricity starved region.
At what cost?
Last week, Godfrey Smith, Belize's attorney general, reiterated that
future
economic development of his country relies on the dam going forward, and
sounded somewhat embarrassed at having "the world financial community" —
aka, prospective investors — ponder "this kind of indecisiveness."
The Privy Council considered Smith's position once before, last summer,
in fact, when it dismissed an application for an injunction to stop dam
construction. But in that application, the council examined whether the
government's granting of the project work was on the up and up. It
didn't consider whether the geological presumptions for the project were
accurate.
Alastair Rogers, who co-authored a report on the environmental effects
of the dam on behalf of Britain's Natural History Museum, was quoted in
the Independent last spring saying: "Fortis claims that the bedrock of
the area is granite. We believe that the presence of a large amount of
porous rock such as limestone could render the dam useless. The forest
would be flooded, but the water would drain away. You'd be left with all
the negatives and none of the positives."
The Natural History report was appended to the initial assessment
commissioned by Fortis, and recommended a much deeper analysis of the
potential aftershocks of the project. That didn't happen.
The Privy Council, which as far as anyone can figure has never before
adjudicated an environmental issue, now considers whether the file
should be reopened. Last week, the court reserved judgment. Bacongo, the
group fighting the dam's construction, wants much more than a new rock
analysis. They want the Chalillo project stopped in its tracks. Knowing
what we know now about the actual foundation of the dam, the Privy
Council now has a reason to order a reprieve.
Return to the
StopFortis.org home
page... |
