Altamira, Brazil – Today’s groundbreaking, comprehensive publication chronicles the complex history of the world’s most controversial hydropower project, the Belo Monte Dam. Compiled by Brazil’s Xingu Alive Forever Movement (Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre), which represents communities affected by the project, together with International Rivers and Amazon Watch, this timely compilation of key events aims to increase public awareness on the trajectory of Belo Monte, in light of increasing international scrutiny on Brazil’s massive spending for large World Cup and other infrastructure projects, and their serious corresponding social and environmental impacts.
The interactive timeline “A Lifetime of Injustice: The History of the Belo Monte Dam” describes in vivid detail close to one hundred critical events in the more than three-decade history of the project. The feature records events that have shaped the reality of this massive dam and those who have been affected by it, including legal disputes, corruption, political maneuvers, indigenous protests, worker strikes, prostitution scandals, human trafficking, and the dam’s technical history. Produced in both English and Portuguese, the timeline catalogues events of central importance for a global media audience.
A critical example detailed in the timeline demonstrates the consistency with which the project developer Norte Energia, S.A. has failed to comply with legally mandated social and environmental mitigation measures, cataloguing the multiple occasions in which the consortium sidestepped its obligations, and what has happened as a result.
The Belo Monte Dam would be the world’s third-largest hydroelectric project on the Xingu River, one of the Amazon’s major tributaries. The dam would divert the flow of the Xingu, devastate an extensive area of the Brazilian rainforest, displace over 20,000 people, and threaten the survival of the indigenous peoples that depend on the river for their livelihoods. This timeline provides the historical context necessary to understand the widespread opposition to the dam maintained by indigenous and environmental groups.
To access the timeline, click on the following links:
Click here for English
Click here for Portuguese
More information:
- Learn about Belo Monte using Google Earth
- Read our fact sheet on the Belo Monte Dam
- Read the book Tenotã-Mõ, a complete history of the Belo Monte Dam
- Download our investor risk report on the Belo Monte Dam
