Source: Wikimedia Brazil postponed an auction to sell rights to build a controversial 8,000-MW hydroelectric dam on the Sao Luiz do Tapajos River in the lower Amazon Basin, Reuters reports. The $13 billion project had outraged environmentalists and indigenous rights groups. "The dam on Sao Luiz do Tapajos that was planned for auction this year will be pushed back until next year," Altino Ventura, the Energy Ministry's secretary for development, told reporters in Sao Paulo. The Energy Ministry said that the consortium of companies planning the project had not fully addressed the concerns of nearby indigenous communities. Recently auctioned mega-dams in the Brazilian Amazon have fallen far behind schedule due to delays in environmental approval, labor protests and occupations of the dams' sites by indigenous groups.
RSS Feed