How will the Belo Monte Dam affect the environment?
Belo Monte’s reservoir, filled at the end of 2015, flooded 260 square miles of lowlands and forest, displaced more than 20,000 people, and caused extensive damage to a river ecosystem that contains more than 500 fish species, many of them found nowhere else.
Why does Brazil’s government want to build the dam?
The proposed construction of the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon state of Para is part of a major government investment drive to help the country keep up with soaring energy demand from a rapidly expanding economy, while curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Hydroelectric power produces no direct carbon dioxide.
How many hydroelectric dams are in Brazil?
Brazil currently has 158 hydroelectric plants in operation, which total more than 89 gigawatts (GW), with 9 additional plants under construction and another 26 authorized. The 11-GW Belo Monte plant, when complete, will be the third-largest hydroelectric power plant in the world.
How do dams cause deforestation?
Previous studies have shown that large dams displace indigenous communities, destroy the natural flow of rivers, affect the fish population, increase greenhouse gas emissions and promote deforestation. More than 945,000 dams higher than 15 metres have been built worldwide.
How many people did the Belo Monte Dam displace?
20,000 people
As one of more than 60 large dams being planned for the Brazilian Amazon, Belo Monte would divert the flow of the Xingu River and devastate an extensive area of the Brazilian rainforest, displacing over 20,000 people and threatening the survival of indigenous peoples.
What type of problem are faced by the tribal people when dams are built or forest areas are declared sanctuaries for animals?
Tribal people have adopted forests as their habitat because, for this reason, they will migrate to other villages due to this they will lose their livelihood. Dams are built across a river so this will result in the damage of vegetation and displacement of people.
How dams affect forest and tribal people?
However, these dams are also responsible for the destruction of forests. They are responsible for degradation of catchment areas, loss of flora and fauna, increase of water borne diseases, disturbance in forest ecosystems, rehabilitation and resettlement of tribal peoples.
What is the effect of dams on tribal people?
The impact of large dams on forests and on the lifestyle and identity of tribal people is extremely high. Almost 40 per cent of those displaced by dams belong to scheduled tribes and 20 per cent to schedule castes. Only 25 per cent of the displaced people have been rehabilitated so far.
What have been negative effects of the dam?
Dams change the way rivers function. They can trap sediment, burying rock riverbeds where fish spawn. Gravel, logs, and other important food and habitat features can also become trapped behind dams. This negatively affects the creation and maintenance of more complex habitat (e.g., riffles, pools) downstream.
Why is hydroelectricity important to Brazil?
Hydropower made up 66% of Brazil’s electricity generation in 2020. Brazil largely relies on hydropower for electricity generation; in 2020, hydropower supplied 66% of its electricity demand.
Why does Brazil use hydroelectricity?
Brazil has the perfect geography for hydroelectric production. The elevation changes, large rivers, and high levels of precipitation qualify Brazil for hydroelectric success. The large rivers and elevation changes provide opportunities to build dams and use gravity to control the flow of water.
How are humans affected by dams?
Dams may cause increases in water sourced ilnesses like typhus, typhoid fever, malaria and cholera. 16. Dams affect the social, cultural and economical structure of the region con- siderably. Especially forcing people, whose settlement areas and lands re- main under water to migrate, affect their psychology negatively.
How dam affect the people?
Somewhere between 40 and 80 million people have been forcibly relocated by the flooding of the land on which they live to create the reservoirs above the dams. Furthermore, even larger numbers of people have had their lives and livelihoods disrupted by the change of the river flow below dams.
How do dams affect human health?
Large dams also influence health through changes in water and food security, increases in communicable diseases, and the social disruption caused by construction and involuntary resettlement.