Venezuela Unveils Mega-Project to Channel Rivers

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org

12/3/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE

Following is information on a plan to dam the Caura river, "inundating

up to 1,000 square kilometers (km2) of valuable forest" in the

process. In addition, a canal 30 km long will be constructed through

another 62 km2, deforesting an estimated 5,300 hectares in the

construction phase of the project alone. The piece from the

Environment News Service provides additional details concerning

threats to forests in Venezuela from a number of sources.

g.b.

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Venezuela Unveils Mega-Project to Channel Rivers

Posted to the web: Wed Nov 27 10:52:53 EST 1996

By Dominic Hamilton

CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 27'96 (ENS) - At a symposium held in the

Tiuna Fort in central Caracas this week, Airforce Brigadier General

Oscard Guedez revealed the government's intention to divert water from

the River Caura to the River Paragua in Bolivar State near the border

with Brazil.

The symposium was called to discuss the pressing environmental, social

and political problems faced by Venezuela on its southern and western

borders. The Minister for Environment and Non-Renewable Resources,

Doctor Roberto Perez Lecuna, who was expected to speak, failed to turn

up.

Also conspicuously absent from the Symposium was the Governor of

Amazonas State, Bernabe Gutierrez, who was to partake in a panel

discussion. The governor has made public his intention to lobby for

the reversal of the Presidential Decrees prohibiting mining and

logging in the state.

The project involves the damming of the Caura in several stages,

inundating up to 1,000 square kilometers (km2) of valuable forest. A

canal 30 km long will cut through another 62 km2, deforesting an

estimated 5,300 hectares in the construction phase of the project

alone, and so linking the Caura to the Paragua.

The River Paragua is essential for the hydroelectric generation of the

Raul Leoni Dam, the second largest dam in the world, and has been

under increasing threat from informal sector mining and logging

concessions over the last decade, and particularly over the last two

years.

General Guedez claimed that a feasibility study of the project had

been completed to divert the Caura towards the Paragua in order to

ensure the flow of water of the Raul Leoni Dam further downstream.

Although the plan has been known in some quarters for some time, the

public declaration of the project to channel water from one river to

the other is an important step.

The apparent need for the large-scale project stems from the

government's inability to control the gold rush on its southeastern

border. It is estimated that 10,000 km2 of forest in the High Caroni

have been destroyed as a result of mining, and over 1000 tons of

mercury, employed in the refining of gold-rich sediment, poured into

the River Caroni over the last decade. Despite various attempts to

legislate against the destruction inflicted on the Rivers Caroni and

Paragua, which feed the dam, government agencies and the military have

not been capable of enforcing these.

Environmentalists have long argued that the plan clears the way for

increased mining and logging concessions in the Rivers Caroni and

Paragua, which up until now have been theoretically protected by

Presidential Decrees and environmental and mining legislation.

A spokesperson for the umbrella NGO 'Coalicion Por La Amazonia y

Orinoquia' which incorporates over 10 different organisations, said,

"The Caura-Paragua Project will not benefit the Yekuana or the

Venezuelan people. The project is far too large, in the old mould of

mega-projects, and the primary objective of the dams will be to sell

electricity to Brazil. Instead of protecting and conserving its

resources, Venezuela is destroying them. "

The River Caura flows north towards the Orinoco in the west of Bolivar

State and is the life-line of the Yekuana Indians. They have not been

consulted by government agencies. In a letter to the President written

when they first heard of the plan, they vowed "We will defend our land

with our lives."

At present there exists an anachronistic 'forest reserve' in the area

affected by the dam. It is feared the implementation of the Caura-

Paragua Project will allow logging concessions to be given out

liberally for this reserve, threatening the destruction of 782,000

hectares of ancient forest. This area has up until now been saved from

the worst effects of the goldrush which has swept the southeast of

Venezuela over the last decade since it is found on the most

inaccessible side of Canaima National Park.

General Guedez also described the immense strain on the infrastructure

of southern Bolivar State due to the migration of up to ten thousand

miners to the area. This migration is a result of their expulsion from

the Kilometro 88 area to the north following the government's policy

of alloting concessions for mainly foreign mining companies such as

Placer Dome, Monarch Resources and Greenwich.

Funding for the Caura-Paragua Project is yet to be secured. If the

present situation in southern Bolivar State is not resolved urgently,

it is more than likely the Guri Dam will lose power, jeopardising 75%

of Venezuela's electricity, the equivalent of nine nuclear power

stations.

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