China & Brazil Neck-And-Neck To See Who Can Build The Most S. American Dams - Tierraamerica

[hatrack]

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 2, 2011 (Tierramérica) - The growing presence of Chinese and Brazilian capital in Latin America's energy sector is facilitating the construction of hydroelectric complexes, but is also the fuelling nationalist stances that are adding to the environmental criticisms of those major projects. The three biggest hydroelectric dams in Ecuador are being built by Chinese companies, which have broken the hegemony of Brazilian construction firms like Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez.

Financing from China's Export-Import Bank, which is covering nearly all the costs, made those dams viable at a time when Ecuador had limited access to credit as a result of the public debt review promoted by the government, beginning in 2007, and its decision not to pay 4 billion dollars in debts, claiming it was not Ecuador's responsibility.

Brazil is also financing dam projects through its National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES). But those investments were hurt in 2008 when the Ecuadorian government of Rafael Correa expelled Odebrecht, accusing the firm of flaws in the construction of the San Francisco hydroelectric dam and demanding 210 million dollars in compensation.

The competition between Brazil and China, which both have surplus capital and construction companies specialising in major projects, has created conditions favourable for exploiting the energy potential of Latin America's abundant rivers. In Peru, this power bid already has a winner. Five hydroelectric complexes are to be built in the Peruvian Amazon region. "They are being planned in function of Brazilian interests," which will be the sole beneficiaries, Alfredo Novoa, director of the non-governmental organisation ProNaturaleza, told Tierramérica. The environmental activist challenges the projects because he believes that Peru has sufficient energy-generating potential to meet current electricity demand, and can expand in the future through wind and other sustainable energy sources that do not entail the environmental and social costs of the dams in the Amazon jungle.

EDIT

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54329

[ixion]

1. Just imagine what that is going to do to the eco-system in both countries...

very sad, in my opinion. :(

[jwirr]

2. If I were S. America I would be very careful about letting China build

a dam. Didn't they have two of them burst and kill a lot of people?

[phantom power]

3. Yes, the Banqiao Dam. Its collapse killed nearly 200,000 people

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam

Interesting, there is apparently a movie about it, or inspired by it:

http://wn.com/banqiao_dam