Gigantic, uncommon and unimaginable. The average sized and partly forested hilltop would indicate the maximum height the water would reach; all this territory, with its tropical air and all we see would be flooded; this entire forest would be no more, all these people, small and dispersed throughout the jungle, would disappear.

Is a tragedy approaching this region of the Amazon Rainforest to the south of Puno? Or is this a possibility for the future? Standing at a point in the route that joins the cities of Juliaca and Mazuko, in a stretch of the South Interoceanic highway that goes from Peru to Brazil, we continue to observe this crucial point, perhaps the heart of what will, in the future be, if all agreements are fulfilled, the Pharaonic dam of Inambari.

It will occupy 410 square kilometers of flooded land, costing 4.9 million dollars in investments, with an energy potential of 2200 megawatts (MW), over a 30-year concession and a 5-year deadline for its construction.  The company in charge: EGASUR S.A., a Brazilian consortium that includes state-owned, Petrobras. The affected area (or benefitted area, according to whom you speak to): part of the Peruvian regions of Cuzco, Puno and Madre de Dios.

The destination of the generated power: that depends. First, the controlled market (for instance, the urban electric power system) and the Peruvian free market; soon, the enormous Brazilian market. It so happens, however, that Peru does not have – for the time being – an energy deficiency. These jungles, half-impacted, and that in the last month of September were observing us, don’t seem to have for the moment any answer to these questions.

This and that

“Where shall we go?”, asked herself Olga Cutipa, president of the Inambari Defense Group, already with a gesture of nostalgia while we talked by the roadside. The company has not informed where these people should go, neither she nor the rest of the inhabitants of the twelve sectors and population centers that lie in the zone that would become the bottom of the water reservoir. “They tell us nothing, but we know they are going to get us out of this place”, she states.

Some vehicles, especially trucks, come and go, sometimes stopping at Lechemayo, Puerto Manoas, Loromayo and other places where tempers have risen for the majority. EGASUR, however, argues that the problem is with the information process that should be conducted among the population, since it was blocked by their own opposition months back.

Graffiti can be seen on the walls of houses or by the road, confirming this undeniable atmosphere: “No to the hydroelectric power plant of Inambari”, “We don’t want any dam”. From Lima, Evandro Miguel, the project’s general manager, says that the protests are unjustified, because according to him, “we will be around for 30 years and want to be among friends.”

He also shows the major programs intended to relocate the inhabitants to other villages with good public services in order to form technicians for the agribusiness. And that’s not all. With a Brazilian accent, he also told me that the production of cocoa or pineapple, the region’s products, will improve with a gain of added value. The dam will also create a type of barrier that will protect its neighbor, the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, one of the most important in the world, according to the National Geographic Society.

There will even be, according to him, an ‘ecologic peninsula’. In other words, a kind of island connected in the middle of the dam, where there will also be a permanent center for biological investigation. The investment to ‘recover biodiversity and human development’, in all, will reach 600,416,000 dollars. Half, however (377 million), will be spent to rebuild the portion of more than 100 kilometers of the Interoceanic highway, which will be flooded if, in the end, this mammoth project is carried through.

The bottom of the dam

How can visions on a same subject be so different? In November 2006, the Peruvian and Brazilian governments signed the ‘Memorandum of Agreement for the Creation of a Commission on Energy, Geologic and Mining Matters’. Last June, both countries signed an agreement that establishes the possible construction of at least 6 dams in the Peruvian Amazon in the next 50 years, the first of which, and the second largest, would be Inambari. Since then, so to speak, a channel was opened for this power plant, perhaps as a first rehearsal of an orchestra.

In the same region, the Peruvian government has already also built, in the 90’s, the dam of São Gabán. According to Víctor Alarcón, a rondeiro manager (a name given to a type of rural organization, quite frequent in Peru), “during that time, many promises were made that went unfulfilled”. And also as a fundamental addition, is the idea that the energy generated will be all for Brazil. “If it was for Peru, we could’ve thought”, said he.

A mistaken option

There’s a vital point there. According to a group of organizations that are against the energy agreement (among which is the World Wildlife and the Peruvian Society for Environmental Rights), Peru could have covered its power demand foreseen for 2020 with 9 thousand MW, without resorting to grandiose projects in the Amazon. In other words, with the powerplants in the Andes, wind power and solar energy, 52 thousand MW could be produced.

Banding together these 6 Amazonian power plants, one only obtains little more than 13 thousand MW. And there’s more. These data confirm that the hydroelectric alternatives are not necessarily the cleanest, due to the putrefaction of thousands of trees that will lie below water level.

EGASUR replies saying that it has a technique to submerge fewer trees when building the dam and offers the following comparison: if the 2200 MW of Inambari were produced by a thermal plant, the emission of gasses would be of 5,940,000 tons of CO2. The methane they would produce, according to their estimates, would reach 990,000 tons a year, avoiding an emission of 4,950,000 tons of greenhouse gases.

Is that so? Aldo Santos, an employee of the Rural Educative Services (SER), says that even with the reduction of the emissions of methane by cutting down trees, what really produces gases are the submerged roots. The problem is that in Peru, as in all Latin America, the greatest emissions come from deforesting. The company insists claiming that it has a reforesting program of a level never before seen.

In order to highlight its ‘environmental’ vocation, it states that for the handling of the biodiversity in general, more than 24 million dollars will be spent. And further: leaning on the ‘Peruvian Amazon 2021’ book, written by Marc Dourojeanni, it points out that, in that text, the author claims that hydroelectric powerplants cause less deforesting and biodegradation. The book, however, is much more than a quote, and actually lists a series of threats on the Amazon for the next years, especially those coming from mammoth-sized power plants such as Inambari.

Actually, the roads are the most impacted. But exactly one of the controversies generated by the project is that, while it is still undergoing its licensing process, the Interoceanic highway continues to be built in this stretch where we are. “If approved, you are going to build another road?”, I ask in a state of unrest. “Yes – replies Evandro Miguel –, but with all the provisions for the case”, he stated. Among them, he explained, is a tree barrier on each side of the road, to avoid new human settlements.

The floodgates of the future

While standing along these roads, we also see a great deal of heat coming from locals. A group of inhabitants of Puerto Manoas, the epicenter of the biggest protests, has just told me that in no way will they leave, because they have been living there for almost 40 years, a claim disputed by the company that says that occupation there has been between 15 and 20 years. There is discord also around the number of people who will have to be removed: 10 thousand, say locals, 4 thousand says the company.

The truth seems to lie somewhere in between. Javier Torres, another employee of SER, says that it is difficult to say how many people will have to leave, since many others inhabit the place temporarily, in a come-and-go fashion. The majority came from the range, to dedicate themselves primarily to agriculture, but also to gold mining on a small scale, an activity that in itself causes a great deal of environmental damage.

The company tries to show that, with the dam, a “barrier” will be created that will avoid the proliferation of these activities, resulting in the protection of the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. However, it remains unclear if those that will leave the flooding zone will change their lifestyles for more sustainable activities. “I don’t believe so – says Santos – it’s more likely that they will impact other places already degraded”.

The 18 thousand jobs generated during the 5 year construction period, 4 thousand of these direct and 14 thousand indirect do not guarantee, according to the opposition, the absorption of all economical activities. It is also possible that this recycling doesn’t work at all. “I’ve always sold pineapple”, said a lady in the midst of a fruit market.

And what will happen in the end? The Peruvian government has just considered as concluded the Temporal Grant of the Inambari Project, by submitting to the company its feasibility study. What’s left is only a Permanent Grant, which should be approved before the submission of an environmental impact study (EIA). This is pending, but a bill in Congress will put this requirement between parenthesis.

Meanwhile, here in the future flooding zone, resentment exists. Olga Cutipa says that “if they do this no matter what, then there will be a ‘Bahuajazo’”, referring to the Bahuaja-Sonene Park, but also to ‘Baguazo’, a series showdowns between the indigenous people and cops, that on June 5 2009, ended up with 34 dead. These places, somewhat destroyed to be sure, do not deserve such a fatal ending.

The government’s position

The Inambari project has already submitted its feasibility study, and with this concluded the temporal grant phase. Now, EGASUR should request the Permanent Grant. According to Daniel Cámac, Peru’s Vice Minister of Energy, for that “it must have its Environmental Impact Study (EIA) approved”.

This study, however, must pass public consultations, which will be held with the affected population, something that has not yet occurred due to the resistance towards the advancing of the company among the population. Last September, however, bill no. 4335-2010/PE was forwarded to Congress and could alter this procedure.

According to this bill, the obligation to submit an evidential resolution from EIA, in order to obtain the Permanent Grant, is no longer necessary. On this, Cámac says that “this does not eliminate the requirement for environmental certifications”, because the obligation of having an EIA remains, according to the Environmental Impact Evaluation System Law. The problem, according to Mariano Castro from the Peruvian Society of Environmental Rights (SPDA), is that this document would no longer be a requirement for obtaining a Permanent Grant, and would only be required to be presented prior to the execution of the project. In other words, one can obtain a Grant without producing an EIA. Then, this would remain completely according to the will of the company.

Cámac replies saying that “all environmental and social implications of this project will be evaluated” and that “if the EIA is not approved” the construction will not begin. Although the abovementioned bill has not yet been approved, it seems worthy of concern that they should make environmental requirements so flexible within an atmosphere of conflicts that must be dissipated.