Brazilian government environmental officials say they have approved construction of a giant hydroelectric dam project on an Amazon River tributary.
Contracts for the Belo Monte dam, which would be the third largest dam in the world, were signed in August 2010 amid widespread protests by environmentalists, the BBC reported Thursday. Brazil's Ibama environmental agency Wednesday gave approval for 588 acres of land to be cleared, although further legal challenges to the project are expected, the BBC said.
The government says the dam is crucial for development and will create jobs but environmental groups say the 3.7-mile long dam will threaten the survival of indigenous groups and could make as many as 50,000 people homeless when as much as 190 square miles of land are flooded.
The 11,000-megawatt Belo Monte dam -- expected to cost between $11 billion and $17 billion to build, and to provide electricity to 23 million homes -- would be the third-largest dam in the world after the Three Gorges dam in China and the Itaipu dam on the Parana River on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, which jointly operate it. (iWireNews ™ and OfficialWire)
