Stor dæmning i Amazonas får OK

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Brazils government has granted an environ-mental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest, BBC online reports Tuesday.

Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups. However, the government says whoever is awarded the project will have to pay 800 millin US dollar to protect the environment and meet 40 other conditions.

The proposal to build a hydro-electric dam on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon in the northern state of Para, has long been a source of controversy. The initial project was abandoned in the 1990s amid widespread protests both in Brazil and around the world.

Critics say the lives of up to 40.000 indigenous people (urskovs-indianere) could be affected as 500 sq km of land would be flooded. They also argue, that the Belo Monte plant will be hugely inefficient, generating less than 10 per cent of its capacity during the three to four months of the low-water season.

When it is comple-ted, Belo Monte would be third largest hydro-electric dam in the world providing electricity to 23 million Brazilian homes, BBC notes.