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November 25, 1996 - VENEZUELA'S ELECTRONIC NEWS - VHeadline No.152
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* VENEZUELA UNVEILS MEGA-PROJECT TO CHANNEL RIVERS
-- Special VHeadline report by Dominic Hamilton --
-- At a symposium held in the Tiuna Fort in central Caracas this last
week, Venezuelan Airforce Brigadier General Oscar 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 Venezuela's
largest state.
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.
The project involves the damming of the Caura in several stages,
inundating up to 1 000 km2 of valuable forest and the excavation of a canal
30 km-long which will cut through another 62 km2, deforesting an estimated
5,300 hectares in the construction phase of the project alone.
The River Paragua is essential for the hydroelectric generation of the
Raul Leoni Dam (also known as the Guri), the second largest dam in the
world. The river has been severely affected by informal sector mining and
clandestine logging concessions over the last decade, and particularly over
the last three years.
Although the plan has been known in some quarters for some time, this
renewed public declaration of the project underlines the government's fear
that the Guri might start to lose power.
The apparent need for the large-scale project stems from the
government's inability to control the gold rush on its southeastern border.
General Guedez claimed 76 operations had been carried out over the last six
years by the Armed Forces in the states of Bolivar, Amazonas and Zulia. The
cost of operations over the last decade totaled 2,000 million Bolivares
($4.2 million ).
Despite this expenditure, it is estimated that 10,000 km2 of forest in
the High Caroni watershed have been destroyed as a result of mining, over
1,000 tons of mercury, employed in the refining of gold-rich sediment, have
poured into the River Caroni over the last decade, and the migration of
thousands of miners has not been stemmed or controlled.
Government agencies and the Armed Forces have been incapable of
enforcing the existing protective legislation of the watersheds of the
Rivers Caroni and Paragua, which feed the dam.
It is feared the Project will merely open the doors to increased mining
and logging concessions in these rivers, destroying invaluable and
irreplaceable forests upon which tens of thousands of indigenous Indians rely.
A spokesperson for the umbrella NGO 'Coalicion Por La Amazonia y
Orinoquia' which incorporates over 10 different organizations in Venezuela,
said : "The Caura-Paragua Project will not benefit the Yekuana, the Pemon or
the Venezuelan people. The project is far too large, in the old mould of
mega-projects. Instead of protecting and conserving its resources,
Venezuela is destroying them. Action must be taken to stop the present
destruction, and enforce the existing legislation. This project is not a
solution, it is an excuse for more of the same."
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 they vowed :
"We will defend our land with our lives."
At present an anachronistic 'forest reserve' exists downstream from 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 782,000 hectares of pristine forest.
Funding for the Caura-Paragua Project is yet to be secured. If the
present situation in southern Bolivar State is not tackled urgently, it is
more than likely the Raul Leoni Dam, which generates the equivalent of nine
nuclear power stations, will lose power, jeopardizing 75% of Venezuela's
electricity.
Dominic Hamilton is at email: <Dominic.Hamilton@VHeadline.com.ve>
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