BRASILIA, Brazil, April 21 (UPI) -- Brazil is going ahead with the controversial Bel Monte hydroelectric power project, likely to be the world's third largest, despite international criticism the dam will ruin Amazonian ecology and indigenous lifestyles.
The government drew bids for the $11 billion project in a hotly opposed auction marked by emotional scenes at the Brasilia headquarters of the National Electric Energy Agency.
Hundreds of protesters converged on Aneel's building ahead of the auction and campaigners vowed to challenge the government in the courts.
In an ironic twist it emerged that funding for the project will draw on pension funds and other public money.
Critics point out the dam complex on the Xingu River will be energy-inefficient and not needed if Brazil mounts, instead, an energy saving program. A World Wildlife Fund report in 2007 said Brazil could cut its expected demand for electricity by 40 percent by 2020 by investing in energy efficiency.
The power saved would be equivalent to 14 Belo Monte hydroelectric plants and would result in national electricity savings of up to $19 billion, the report said.
The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has sights set on industrial expansion that will see the bulk of the dam's 11,000-megawatt production going into high-consumption industrial plants, such as those processing bauxite into aluminum.
So determined was the government in going ahead with the project that the auction took place immediately after a judge overturned another magistrate's injunction blocking the tender and revoking the environmental permit for the complex.
The campaign against the dam has attracted international opponents, including Hollywood star Sigourney Weaver and Canadian film director James Cameron, whose recent film, "Avatar," about a tribe on a distant moon fighting human encroachment resonates with the anti-dam campaigners. The critics were joined by the Brazilian Attorney General's Office and several judges.
Several Greenpeace activists dumped a horse manure outside the Aneel headquarters entrance, then chained themselves to the fence.
If and when built, Belo Monte will be Brazil's second largest dam after Itaipu, jointly operated with Paraguay, and the world's third largest, after China's Three Gorges Dam.
Last week Cameron and members of the production team of "Avatar" joined several hundred protesters against the dam. Critics remain hopeful they can overturn the project before it leaves the drawing board.
Opponents argue Belo Monte will only use 10 percent of its 11,233-megawatt installed capacity during the 3-5 month dry season and less than 40 percent of its nominal capacity in other months.
To guarantee a year-round flow of water, the government may need to build other dams on the Xingu river and tributaries, with adverse consequences for the local environment and indigenous citizens of Brazil.
