Rapid growth in Amazon dams brought home by online map

|
Amazon dams

The new website contains details on all dam projects being planned in the Amazon basin region

New website details more than 140 planned or operating hydropower projects in the Amazon basin
 

The growing number of hydroelectric dams in the Amazon basin has been mapped online for the first time, by a coalition of environmental groups.

The Dams in Amazonia database includes dams already in operation, as well as those currently under construction or planned for the future. It also lists their size, the companies that have put up the investment and any impacts on the environment and indigenous groups.
 
Although seen as a crucial part of economic development in the region, dams face fierce opposition from indigenous groups and civil society organisations who are concerned about the displacement of local people and the impacts on aquatic ecosystems.

Dam opposition

Brazil recently gave the go-ahead for what will be the world’s third largest hydroelectric dam. The $17 billion Belo Monte dam will displace tens of thousands of people and impact upon the livelihoods of thousands more.

Another project under development, the Dardanelos Dam, also in Brazil, has already depleted river fish stocks that local indigenous communities rely on for protein. In the most recent in a series of protests, 100 construction workers were held hostage by Brazilian Indians as they occupied the site of the dam’s construction. 

Brazil has more dams operating or planned than any other country in Amazonia, with 68 featured in the database.

Useful links

Dams website

  READ MORE...
NEWS
Global rise in hydroelectric dams threatens tribal peoples
A new wave of hydropower projects is under way in the quest for clean renewable energy but tribal and indigenous peoples continue to be ignored by those pushing through the plans
NEWS
Brazil to build world's third largest dam in Amazon
Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam project would devastate a large area of the Amazon rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous peoples
SPECIAL CONTENT
Atlantic Rising: Belo Monte dam the start of the drowning of the Amazon
Campaigners fear the construction of the world's third largest hydroelectric dam in Brazil is just the start with many more being planned in the Amazon basin
NEWS
No stopping controversial dam in Ethiopia
Controversial dam project on the Omo River in southern Ethiopia cannot be stopped says African Development Bank
HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Communities using hydro power to fund green renewal
A pioneering community-based hydroelectric energy project in the Brecon Beacons is a blueprint for how green energy can provide more than just low-carbon power...

More from this author