Day 3; Hydroelectric Dams on the Headwaters

I’m uploading this on Saturday, after the closing of the event, because the internet connection has been interruped throughout the last three days of the event, preventing us from uploading images or text.

After yesterday’s dramatic climax, this morning has been much calmer, but no less significant. Yesterday focussed on the massive Belo Monte project; today’s discussion related to the smaller but arguably no less destructive proposals to build dams on the headwaters.

Six dams are planned for the five major headwaters of the Xingu. One of these, Paranatinga II, is under construction and nearing completion. It has been the cause of stormy confrontations between the Indians of the Xingu Indigenous Park, especially the Ikpeng, and employees of the construction company.

Although these schemes are intended to produce electricity to feed local demand only, and will create quite small reservoirs, they affect the ecosystem of the whole length of the Xingu.

Many fish species migrate during their lifetimes, returning to spawning grounds in the headwaters to lay their eggs but living most of their lives further downstream. These fish are the principal protein source for the Indians of the Xingu Indigenous Park, who are amongst the most traditional in their lifestyles. They hunt very little, and anyway they report that hunting has been less and less successful as their reserves are rapidly becoming isolated islands in the sea of soya which surrounds them.

Fish stocks are already under pressure because of alterations to the riverine ecology resulting from land use changes. Unlike the natural cerrados forests which used to occupy the headwaters, the soya fields do not provide a steady, balanced drip feed of nutrients into the river.

Instead, the increasingly intense rains wash quantities of agrochemicals into the rivers which enter the Park. Some are straightforward toxins, killing fish and microfauna. Others are artificial fertilisers which favour specific plant species, causing changes in the food supply chain and destabilising the whole ecosystem.

In addition to this, the soil of the soya fields has nothing to bind it and washes down into the river, turning the once-clear water into a muddy soup, making it impossible for the Indians to fish using traditional methods such as bows and arrows.

The hydroelectric companies propose to include ‘fish ladders’ to allow the fish to continue their annual migration, but ecologists say that the plan is ill-conceived and will be ineffective. Only a tiny proportion of the fish will be able to make the journey; many will die in the hot pools which will form the ladder; others simply are unable to negotiate the journey.

Any young fish which do hatch in the headwaters face an even greater problem in finding their way downstream. There is no way to direct them away from the turbine intakes, and they will become minced fish-meal as they pass through the turbines.

The gallery of pictures for day 3:

http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/scp/gallery-show/G0000I9QZ8dN3oRg/

© Patrick Cunningham