The water that was held back by the dam extends life thousands of miles away and generates energy for around 60 million people.
The Belo Monte operating license is currently being updated. The decision from Ibama, the federal environmental agency that greenlighted the project, has been pending since the initial license expired in November 2022. This regulatory limbo provided an unusual opportunity to try and adjust rules governing how much water the river community moves into the dam, and how much remains for the ecosystem and people.
Extreme droughts, related to both climate change and deforestation, threatened river health and raised further interests by reducing power generation. This is the reality that many hydroelectric plants around the world face. However, Lula’s government is currently in the spotlight. He will face scrutiny from environmental and human rights advocates over the promises of a sustainability campaign while holding this year’s UN Climate Conference (COP30) in Brazil. Belo Monte’s approval looms to test how his government handles the difficult trade-offs between energy security, environmental protection and indigenous rights.
To build the Belo Monte Complex, engineers decoupled much of the Xingu stream through artificial canals to power turbines, flooding just under 50,000 acres of land, expelling an estimated 40,000 people. The project also significantly reduced river levels along the 80-mile stretch downstream.
Stepping out of the coastline of this area of the river, Sarah Rodriguez is a fisherman who has lived for life in the Volta Grande, quietly watches a group of visitors embrace hand-drawn graphs to show why local fish stocks are at risk. Suddenly, her voice exploded, causing her to be frustrated. “The water comes, carry the eggs, take them away, destroy the trakaja [turtle’s] The nest and breeding ground,” she says, chasing.
It was an important message that was encoded into the curves of the graph. The problem is not just the amount of water lost in the dam, but the disturbed rhythm of its flow. Fish require a surge in water to move upstream and to forested islands, or to spawning sites in Igapos. Fruits ripen, fall at the right time and feed them. If the river levels drop at the wrong time, fish eggs will dry out with shallow water or fruits that fall onto dry ground. If the water rises from the season, turtle eggs buried on the sandy beach are washed away.
The weakness and flow that once moved to the natural pulse are determined by the dam, breaking the cycles that maintain the aquatic ecosystem and unleashing the entire way of life. Depleted fish strains mean low healthy foods and low income. Deprived of the traditional way of making a living, fishermen set out for Altamira, known as one of Brazil’s most violent cities.
Research shows that fish spawning sites have compromised, tree mortality rates have increased, and sedimentation and erosion since dams were built.
“To talk to you today is not easy for me or the Indigenous people,” says Rodriguez, who is emotionally filled with eyes. “We wanted to talk about the Volta Grande I knew here. We had life, we had health, we had an unharmed ecosystem.”
Now the water has returned from Volta Grande, thousands of miles away. It generates energy for around 60 million people in the southern part of the country, including urban areas like Rio de Janeiro. Brazil relies on hydroelectric power generation for more than 60% of its electricity. Up to 10% of that is offered in full capacity by Belo Monte. In 2023, a year of drought, the factory filled just 6% of Brazil’s consumption.
Even as investments in solar, wind and biomass grow, analysts say hydropower will remain a big part of Brazil’s renewable energy mix in its quest to meet energy demand and climate goals. Packing the intermittent wind and solar power production gap is the biggest challenge for the country’s energy grid, according to Ricardo Baitelo, engineer and project manager at the Brazilian Institute of Energy and Environment. But Belo Monte hasn’t solved that problem, he says. “[Variation] Despite the dam being operational, it’s still a challenge. ”
The Xingu River before and after the construction of Belo Monte Dam.
Suitable by NASA/Yale Environment 360
With the dam structures beginning in 2013 and the dam structures formed, local communities began to monitor territorial changes, and the tug-of-war with Norte Enagia continues to this day through appeals to Ibama and the courts. The energy company that declined to comment on this article has long been insisting that plants leave the leaves of the river to maintain ecosystem health in the Volta Grande region. However, residents, scientists and environmental advocates countered these claims in a multi-year peer-reviewed study showing high tree mortality, infringement of fish spawning sites, increased sinking and erosion, and risks to voyage.
Ibama acknowledges these harms. When the plant was first approved, and again in 2021, it agreed to an environmental mitigation plan with Norte Energy. In February, the company won a court case that closed previous orders by Ibama to temporarily maintain high water levels downstream.
In August 2022, Yuja took advantage of the pending license renewal and worked with the research coalition of scientists and river residents supported by the Brazilian NGO Institute for Social and Environmental Studies (ISA) and other institutions to provide the government with a unique version of the hydrograph. Named the Piracema Halodogram due to where and when the fish lay eggs, the Union’s plan calls for the release of enough water to maintain a level of about 70-80% of the historic average volume flowing through Volta Grande over the year. It also smoothes out the sudden changes in river flow more subtlely and mimics the natural cycle more closely.
The trade-off between power grids for river life and water for water has always been at the root of Belomonte’s controversy.
The restructuring decision was expected by mid-2024, according to Felicio Pontes Jr., a federal civil servant prosecutor in Para, who handled many legal challenges for Norte Energia. “We don’t know if the government is taking approval seriously. [it] He said. “We’re waiting,” he said. According to Andre Oliveira Sawakci, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Sao Paulo, the government agency, the research coalition that proposed a piracema equilibrium that is working with Matty, has not taken it seriously so far.
On condition of anonymity, a senior government official said there is ongoing debate over the practically quiet conflict within the government. While the license is under review, the Department of Mines and Energy is opposed to changes to existing hydrographs and plays a greater role in monitoring social and environmental conditions associated with dam operations. Ibama, the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Energy have rejected the request for an interview. Meanwhile, Belo Monte is permitted to operate indefinitely under a temporary license.
According to Sawakuchi, the trade-off between power grids for life in the river and water for water and water for water has always been at the root of Belo Monte’s controversy. But the debate is highly politicized. “When we get [to] The point to make a decision, you have this conflict [the] “The social and environmental sectors and the federal energy sector,” he says.
It is unclear what decisions will have tolerated the severe drought of recent years. Amazon River reached record lows in 2023 and 2024. In the first three weeks of September 2024, Belo Monte worked for less than 3% of its potential.
The current trend is that hydropower output is set to drop even further. The effects of climate change, including heat waves and droughts, could cause Xingu water levels to drop by up to 50% in the coming decades. Modeling research According to researchers from Brazilian and US institutions. And scientists now see clear evidence that widespread deforestation that reduces evapotranspiration will soon lead to a tipping point in which the Amazon will not produce its own rainfall, exacerbate the drought and further impair the dam’s generation capacity.
As Belo Monte’s deadlock drags on, the hydroelectric complex continues to divert water. Yudjá and Ribeirinhos know that life in the Xingu area will never be the same again. The goal is to preserve what remains, and they believe that their piracema balance is the most realistic opportunity to do it. “Look, I’m not leaving Volta Grande,” says Rodrigues. “As long as I have a drop of water, I’ll be here. My kids know that if something happens to me they’ll continue the fight.”
