Brazilian Dam Causes Too Much or Too Little Water in Amazon Villages

By Mario Osava Reprint |      | Print | Send by email |En español

A chicken coop in the village of Miratu, flooded because the Xingu River rose much more than was announced by Norte Energía, the company that built and operates the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, whose main reservoir is some 20 km upstream from the Juruna community in Brazil’s northern Amazon jungle region. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

ALTAMIRA, Brazil, Apr 1 2017 (IPS) - The Juruna indigenous village of Miratu mourned the death of Jarliel twice: once on October 26, when he drowned in the Xingu River, and the second time when the sacred burial ground was flooded by an unexpected rise in the river that crosses Brazil’s Amazon region.
Their cries are also of outrage against the Norte Energía company, the concession-holder for the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, which determines the water flow in the Volta Grande stretch of the Xingu River, a 100-km area divided in three municipalities, with five indigenous villages along the riverbanks.
Jarliel Juruna, 20, was very good at what he did: catch ornamental fish, which have been increasingly scarce since the dam was inaugurated in November 2015. Apparently the need to dive deeper and deeper to find fish and help support his family contributed to the fatal accident, according to his siblings Jailson and Bel.
The company had ensured that the rise in water level in that area would be moderate, since the flow was divided between the Volta Grande and a canal built to feed the main Belo Monte generating plant, near the end of the curve in the river known as Volta Grande or Big Bend.
The markers showing how high the water would rise were surpassed early this year, due to heavy rains and a limited diversion of the water to be used by the hydroelectric plant, which will be the third largest in the world in terms of capacity once it is completed in 2019.
The unexpected rise also caused material losses. Boats and equipment were carried away by the high water. “My manioc crop was flooded, even though it was on land higher than the markers,” said Aristeu Freitas da Silva, a villager in Ilha da Fazenda.
Despite the excess of water, this village of 50 families is suffering a lack of drinking water.
“The river is dirty, we drink water from a well that we dug. The three wells drilled by Norte Energía don’t work because the water pump broke eight months ago,” said Miguel Carneiro de Sousa, a boatman hired by the municipality to ferry students to a nearby school.
The school in Ilha da Fazenda only goes up to fourth grade, and in Brazil education is compulsory up to the ninth grade.

Bel Juruna, a Juruna indigenous leader from the village of Miratu along the Volta Grande of the Xingu River. The 25-year-old woman is an impressive voice in the defence of indigenous rights, against the Belo Monte hydropower plant and inefficient government authorities, in this territory in Brazil’s Amazon region. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

Deiby Cardoso, deputy mayor of Senador José Porfirio, one of the municipalities in Volta Grande, admitted that water supply is a municipal responsibility, and promised that the problem would be resolved by late April.
He did so during a Mar. 21 public hearing organised by the public prosecutor’s office in the city of Altamira, to address problems affecting Volta Grande. IPS attended the hearing as part of a one-week tour of riverbank and indigenous villages in this area.
Taking over the Xingu River for energy purposes, to the detriment of its traditional users, such as indigenous and riverine peoples, has cost Norte Energía many obligations and complaints in its area of influence in the northern state of Pará, where local people sometimes confuse its role with that of the government.
The company is required to carry out a plan for compensation and mitigation of social and environmental impacts, with conditional targets, and the number of complaints about non-compliance is increasing.
Local residents of Ilha da Fazenda had reasons to complain at the hearing. The health post is filthy and abandoned, the ambulance boat has a broken motor, and the electricity produced by the village generator is only available from 6:00 to 10:00 PM.
The deputy mayor accepted the complaints about the delays, which he said were due to the short period that the municipal government has been in power, since January.

The unkempt health post in Ilha da Fazenda, one of the villages on the banks of the Xingu River affected by the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, in the state of Pará in Brazil’s Amazon region. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

But holding the key to the Xingu River, opening or closing spillways and activating or shutting off its turbines, Norte Energía dictates the water level downstream, especially in the Volta Grande. At the hearing, it seemed clear that they do it without considering the human and environmental impacts.
“The water level drops and rises all of a sudden, without warning,” complained Bel Juruna, a 25-year-old community leader and defender of indigenous peoples’ rights who talked to IPS during the visit to the village of Miratu.
“These abrupt fluctuations in the volume of water released in the Volta Grande produce changes in the water level in the river that confuse the aquatic fauna, disoriented by the availability of space to feed and breed,” said ecologist Juarez Pezzuti, a professor at the Federal University of Pará.
And once the hydroelectric plant starts to operate normally, the water flow will be permanently reduced, he added.
The local people are informed daily, through phones installed by the company in many houses, about the volume of water that enters Volta Grande. But this information about cubic metres per second means nothing to them.
“The information has to be useful,” adding the water level in the river in each village, the local indigenous people told the authorities present at the hearing, who included prosecutors, public defenders and heads of the environmental and indigenous affairs agencies.
There is a “failure of communication” that Energía Norte needs to fix, it was agreed during the hearing, where there were no representatives of the company.

Indigenous houses, practically submerged by the unexpected rise of the Xingu River. These traditional houses of the Juruna people give support to the “canoada”, a tourist and political event that the native people organize each September along the Volta Grande, in the northern Amazon state of Pará in Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

Safety of navigation is another demand by the Juruna and Arara native people, who live on the banks of the Volta Grande. The damming of the river exacerbated the “banzeiros” (turbulence or rapids), which have already caused one death, early this year.
The local indigenous peoples are demanding large vessels, one for each of the five villages, to cross the reservoir to Altamira, the capital of the Medio Xingú region, without the risks that threaten their small boats.
They are also asking for support equipment for the most turbulent stretches of the Volta Grande, from August to November, when small dangerous rocky islands emerge due to the low water level.
The reduced water flow has made navigation difficult in the Volta Grande, the traditional transport route used by local people, increasing the need for land transport.
An access road to the routes that lead to Altamira is a chief demand of the Arara people.

Related IPS Articles

• Indigenous People in Brazil’s Amazon – Crushed by the Belo Monte Dam?
• Fishing Families Left High and Dry by Amazon Dams
• Deforestation in the Amazon Aggravates Brazil’s Energy Crisis
• Integration and Development Brazilian-Style: More IPS Coverage

“It was a condition of the building permit for Belo Monte, to this day unfulfilled. We have been waiting for that road since 2012,” protested José Carlos Arara, leader of the village of Guary-Duan.
They rejected the handing over of a Base of Operations that Norte Energía built for the National Indian Foundation, the state body for the defence of indigenous rights, to protect their territory. “With no land access, we won’t accept the base, because it will be incomplete,” said Arara, supported by leaders of other villages.
To improve territorial protection and the participation of indigenous people in the committees that deal with indigenous issues and those involving Volta Grande within the programmes of compensation and mitigation of impacts of Belo Monte is another common demand, submitted to the hearing in a letter signed by the Arara and Juruna people.
The need for protection was stressed by Bebere Bemaral Xikrin, head of the association of the Xikrin people, from the Trincheira-Bacajá indigenous land.
Since mid-2016, the waters of the Bacajá River have been dirty, which has killed off fish. The reason is the “garimpo” or informal surface mining along tributary rivers of the Bacajá, on the outskirts of the Xikrin territory.
And things will get worse with the construction of a road to bring in machinery for the garimpeiros or informal miners, if the Protection Plan, which was to be ready in 2011 “but hasn’t made it from paper to reality, is not fully implemented soon,” said Bebere Bemaral.
The Xikrin people do not live along the Volta Grande, but everything that happens in that stretch of the Xingu River affects the Bacajá, a tributary of the Xingu, which this people depend on for survival, he explained.
The rivers which were the lifeblood of local indigenous and riverine people became a risk factor with the implementation of a hydropower megaproject, to which could be added the Belo Sun mining project, also on the banks of the Volta Grande.

My comments:

Are Bakun Dam, Murum dam and Batang Ai dam causing too much water or too little water to the villages, towns and cities in Sarawak?  Check and see.

 

Teng, Soo agree on supremacy of M’sia Agreement 1963

April 24, 2017, Monday Lim How Pim, reporters@theborneopost.com

      Soo makes references during her talk. — Photo by Tan Song Wei

KUCHING: The Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) or Federal Constitution, which is supreme?
   
This question was raised during the ‘Sarawak Rights’ forum jointly organised by Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S), Sarawak Dayak Iban Association and Kuching Traditional Handicraft Society at Kenyalang Theatre here yesterday.
Former assistant minister Datuk David Teng, who was one of the three speakers at the forum, said no constitutional laws should supercede the special rights enshrined in MA63.

He stressed that it all depended on the subject matters since the agreement was signed way back in 1963.

“Not all rights are special rights, which the Federal Constitution should not take away. There is no way MA63 can cover everything as there are new things along the way.”

To another speaker, president of State Reform Party Lina Soo, there will be no Malaysia without MA63.

“If there is no Malaysia, there won’t be any Federal Constitution. Therefore, MA63 is the fundamental constitutional document before anything else.”
Earlier in her talk, Soo quoted the United Nations (UN) as saying that colonies were not empowered to sign any international treaty.

When MA63 was signed among the five signatories, she pointed out, only two of them were independent countries.
“The five signatories were Britain, Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Northern Borneo. Of these, only Britain and Federation of Malaya are countries (independent) while Singapore is a self-governing state and Sarawak and Nothern Borneo were colonies.
“Federal Constitution can be amended but MA63 cannot be amended unless all signatories go back to the negotiating table,” she said, adding that laws could not be passed in contravention of MA63.

At a question-and-answer session, she was asked whether MA63 was invalid since it had been signed by two colonies.
To this, Soo said the UN had stated that only nations could sign international treaties while colonies were not empowered to do so.

“It is like a nine-year-old who signs an agreement, which is not valid. Malaysia is a political reality. Whether the agreement is valid or not, only the court can decide.

“I believe this MA63 can be challenged in the British Court, a proceeding that will cost RM2 million.”

Responding to the same issue, Teng said MA63 could have been signed between independent nations Britain and Federation of Malaya.

The international treaty, which carried signatories of colonies such as Sarawak and Northern Borneo was one way of Britain showing the world that the colonies also indicated their consent, he said.

“Britain is one of the cleverest colonial governing nations. When Sarawak and Northern Borneo also signed the international treaty, they would say ‘You people also agreed’.

“Legally speaking, the lawful signatories should be only two — Britain and Federation of Malaya.”

透过SACOFA建信息技术设施 张健仁：典型的官商挂钩

2017年4月8日 南砂

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(古晋7日讯)行动党古晋市国会议员兼哥打圣淘沙州议员张健仁认为﹐砂州政府透过SACOFA有限公司发展信息技术基建设施领域的模式，本身就是最典型的官商挂钩、朋党运作的生意模式。

张健仁列出几项该运作模式的朋党因素：
即SACOFA有限公司是一件私人公司，其50%的股权是由CMS集团所持有，公司运作也是由CMS集团控制；SACOFA是砂州信息技术基建设施领域的总监管人，而其本身也涉及该领域的工程的承包商业活动；砂州政府拨出10亿令吉巨额进行信息技术基建设施的发展，基本上就是由该公司全权负责管理。
他今日文告指出，在任何的先进国家，都不可能会有一间私人公司，即是一个商业领域的总监管机构，却同时也在该领域进行商业活动。自己监管自己的工程，这是最基本，最原始的官商勾结利益冲突的例子。

他透露，目前，所有的电讯公司，在砂州都不可拥有它们本身自己的电讯塔或不准安装它们本身的电讯传播仪器，除非它们得到SACOFA的书面准证，而要得到这准证﹐就必须还该公司准证费。

电讯公司需缴准证费


他也透露，过去一些电讯公司所建的电讯塔，或它们所安装在它们租借的一些店屋屋顶的电讯传播仪器，在砂州的法律下都变成非法建筑，除非它们得到SACOFA的批准，包括付还昂贵的准证费。
他表示，如果SACOFA是全属砂州政府的公司，这种商业运作模式顶多是干涉自由经济活动、妨碍市场自由竞争，造成低效率的经济资源分配。但是，如今该公司已是一间私人公司，由CMS集团控制。
“SACOFA在去年被CMS收购并接管之后，短短一年的时间，砂州政府即公布将拨款10亿令吉发展信息技术基建设施，并将建5000支电讯塔。”
建议3措施避免垄断
张健仁质问阿邦佐，如果他还要更多的证据确定这是否是朋党运作，阿邦佐只需问：谁决定建电讯塔的地点？谁委任承包商建电讯塔？以及，谁决定这些承包商建电讯塔的价钱？他也说，砂州政府所拨的这10亿令吉发展信息技术基建设施的拨款，最终也将是由CMS集团操控。
他建议，若阿邦佐真的要取走在发展信息技术基建设施领域的朋党元素，他必须落实以下3个措施：
1.取消SACOFA的监管信息技术基建设施的权力；
2.取消SACOFA在信息技术基建设施发展的垄断权，并开放这领域给其他建筑公司或电讯公司直接与政府交涉；及
3.设立一个政府机构管制信息技术基建设施领域的全面发展策划和招标程序，并成立一个由朝野议员所组成的砂州议会特选委员会，监督该政府机构。
“唯有落实这3项措施，砂州的信息技术基建设施才能在更透明、公平及有效的制度下发展，而政府的10亿令吉拨款才不会又一大部分被‘干捞’掉。”

Mycomments：
砂拉越要进步，我是100% 肯定要崭新的政府，一切都是以砂国为主的政府。 UMNO-BNised 的政客绝对不可能为砂国带来好处。过去50多年的情形，就是我们的见证。 大家请在2021年，我们一起来换政府吧。 这所谓的“国选”只是官爷们的利益和好处。我们砂拉越好多权益就是被这些“国会议员”走狗一一典当掉。 大家还很热情去“国选”吗？ 我应该不会砸破[诺言]自投罗网去帮错忙。一错再错又错。 够了吧。  我们大家在砂拉越国选时，换个政府，来个了断。 我们砂拉越人才有明天，后天和未来。砂的未来是在砂子民的手中。 我们人民一定要合作和团结。

张健仁反对朋党公司垄断 提升网速工程应投明化 诗华日报4月4日讯
找不到这篇文章

Submerged pontoons refloated after a week

March 10, 2017, Friday

Two of the pontoons have been refloated.

The gangway leading to the pontoon is no longer submerged because the tide is low.

The partially submerged gangway on March 1.

SIBU: Two of the three upstream pontoons at Kapit Wharf in Khoo Peng Loong Road that submerged last week were refloated yesterday.
This was disclosed by Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) assistant controller (region two) Christopher Chan.

“The remaining one has severe leaks. SRB will look into removing the pontoon in due course.

“Our men are constantly monitoring the situation to ensure safety of the operation and the users,” he said when contacted, adding that operation at the wharf was not affected.

For the record, there are six pontoons at the Kapit Wharf here. Express boats plying the downriver routes, namely

Passin, Daro, Igan and Pulau Bruit are berthed at Kapit Wharf.
Chan added that age and the wear and tear over the years might be the causes of the pontoon sinking. Seepage of water into cracks of the pontoons was also a possibility.

He said SRB and Public Works Department (JKR) would be looking into a long-term solution to tackle the problem.

My comments:
When are they going to deal with this problem that is caused by the dams upstreams?   It is understood that when the water level of the dams have come to a height, they have to discharge the excess water.   When there are downpours upstream at the dams, that means there are a constant discharges of large, large, large voume.....of water.  When there are  constant deluges of  water at the dams, that means there are  constant discharge of large volume of water downstream.  The end results are that our houses, our farms, our schools, our roads, .......all serve as reservoirs for these deluges from the dams upstream.

Since the clearing of the lands for these purposes none of the areas in Sarawak is spared of this menace.  Our UMNO-BNised political thugs /clowns are still bluffing that only the BN government can provide us with a better future.

What kind of better future can you see or expect when we are threatened by ever bigger floods every now and then?   And I repeat our houses, our farms, our schools, our roads and whatsoever all are served as reservoirs to collect the excess water deluged from the dams upstream.  OUMN-BNised Sarawak government is planning to build 12 dams in Sarawak to damn us.  Bear in mind that our Bakun dam as one of the political thug boasted that it is as large the size as Singapore.  Imagine how large the volume of water to be discharged and how fast it is when there are downpours around the dams.

余清禄：全民党矢恢复砂权益

2017年3月27日 中砂

（本报诗巫27日讯）肯雅兰全民党已于昨日召开2017年常年党员大会，并发出全体党员公告，指称砂拉越已沦为马来亚殖民地，在无数次的宪法修改中，已完全丧失了1963年参组马来西亚，由英、马、星、砂、沙、汶 五方共同签署的合约中注明应享的权益。

该公告是于今日由肯雅兰全民党主席余清禄于新闻发布会上，作出宣读。

他表示，肯雅兰全民党是由一批立志为砂人权益奋斗的各族各阶层人士所组成，在宪法范围内捍卫砂人民在1963年马来西亚合约中的应有权益，最终走向公投自决。
砂权益遭置之脑后

他说，令砂拉越人民失望、全砂人民日渐失却信心的是，砂拉越实质上已沦为马来亚的殖民地，在无数次的宪法修改中已完全丧失了1963年参组马来西亚，由英、马、星、砂、沙、汶 五方共同签署的合约中注明应享的权益。

“砂拉越实质已沦为马来亚掠夺资源和倾销商品的一个‘州’，根本失去参组马来西亚的一邦地位。砂拉越人民痛心地看到土地上的主要资源被掠夺；失去贸易自由；失去金融自主；主要商品被马来亚垄断，砂商人被迫做二、三手经销；航空被剥削；教育被愚民化；通讯被垄断，而且提供高价低劣的服务。”

另外，海洋权益被大部份切割；低劣的基础设施和服务，如危路，危楼；30%以上的农村没有水电供应；许多乡村道路不通，通讯不达；有的偏远民众连最基本的身份证都申请不到。

该文告指出，总结种种，砂拉越失去了一个邦的地位，没有了自主权，而仅剩缺乏实权的移民自主权，和年复一年苦苦等待联邦施舍的“拨款”、“津贴”。难道，这就是安排“参组”的所谓大马计划？

“我们的后代不能再等待，不愿做愚民，决心要把权益拿回来；我们对执政54年的国阵失去信心；我们也不能寄期望和要求某些政党能给我们上述根本利益，只有砂拉越各族人民团结起来，站出来勇敢奋争才能取回根本利益。”肯雅兰党愿意与所有有志于砂拉越人民自主、自治、自决的政党、团体、人士合作，以推翻贪腐政权，建立砂拉越人民
真正当家做主的政府。

PRS Youth on sending Islamic religious teachers to rural schools

February 17, 2017, Friday

KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) Youth has expressed concern over the government’s intention of sending Islamic religious teachers from the Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah into schools in the rural areas, particularly those with Dayak students forming the majority.

Its publicity youth chief Andy Lawrence said their request was valid especially if the ustaz or ustazah was playing an influential role in school food rationing or tender bidding involving food supply, for instance.

“PRS will oppose placing Islamic religious teachers in rural schools where there is no Muslim students. Most schools in rural Sarawak do not have Muslim students and hence there is no necessity to place Islamic religious teachers in such schools.

“But if there are schools that have many Muslim students, then please give priority to our local Sarawakian teachers to go there. Similarly, in rural schools where there is no Muslim students, a halal certification of ration supply to these schools should not be a requirement.

“If halal certification is a requirement for the suppliers to participate in bidding as school ration suppliers, PRS will consider it bias and unfair to non-Muslim wet ration suppliers to rural schools in Sarawak. Please be reasonable and rational on this matter.

“Full autonomy in education must  be given to Sarawak as it would be easier for us to understand the local sentiments and needs. Hence, it will be easier for us to manage and to speed up the development of education in Sarawak, especially to improve school infrastructure and facilities as many of the buildings are dilapidated,” he added.

It would be better if schools in the rural areas were exempted from the move of sending ustaz and ustazah to schools where Dayak and/or Christians were the majority, he said.

Andy, who is a councillor with Samarahan Municipal Council, said the party was not against Islamic religious teachers teaching in Sarawak but they would be a disservice to the local community if they were allowed to teach or reside in such schools.

Despite acknowledging the insufficient number of Islamic Studies teachers in Sarawak, he urged the government to give the Islamic Studies teaching posts to Sarawakians first and foremost.

“The Education Ministry should be focusing on critical issues at hand, like the issue of the more than 200 temporary teachers whose services are being terminated after serving for so many years in the industry,” he said.
He was referring to the Ministry of Education’s move to bring in several Islamic Studies teachers from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah into Sarawak.

Its minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said an arrangement over this matter had already been discussed with Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg.

This arrangement is special and nothing to do with the state policy of wanting to have the 90:10 ratio of Sarawakian to Peninsular Malaysian teachers in the state.

My comments:
What a shame!  What a curse!  This I see a project UMNO-BN to ...
with the consent of UMNO-BNised Abang Johari and his teams to disrupt the 90: 10 ratio.  This is the hidden agenda to undo 90:10 ratio.