Environmentalists urge Siemens not to get involved in Brazil Amazon dam project

About 30 environmental activists demonstrated outside the Siemens Brazil headquarters in São Paulo against the construction of the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric plant in Pará state. Greenpeace, which led the protest, has asked the company not to get involved in the project. Siemens is a leading global supplier of equipment for hydropower plants including the Belo Monte dam in Pará.

Protesters showed pictures of Tapajós river and Munduruku indigenous people, who will be badly impacted if the plant is built as it will flood part of the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory. According to Greenpeace, this is a threat to the culture and way of life of more than 12,000 indigenous people who live there.

The São Luiz reservoir will drown an area of nearly 400 square kilometers and more than 2.2 square kilometers of Amazon forest could be destroyed, an area equivalent to one third of the total deforestation in Brazil in 2015, Thiago Almeida of Greenpeace warns. He pointed out the area that will be flooded is sacred land for the Munduruku people.

Endemic animal and plant species are also threatened. Moreover, the project puts the culture and livelihoods of more than 12,000 people who live in the region at risk with the flooding of creek and stone areas, “critical breeding sites for fish and other animals that provide food for them.”

According to a recent Greenpeace report, a combination of solar, wind and biomass could replace the São Luiz do Tapajós project. Greenpeace says Siemens has not yet made a “clear, objective commitment” that it will stay out of the project.

Translated by Mayra Borges