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dam-l Dredgers at work on upper Paraguay in Pantanal
Dredgers will recuperate stretches of the Paraguay River
Source: Correio do Estado, Campo Grande, 26/27 September, 1998
11 different points on the Paraguay River and within the Pantanal will be
straightened by potent dredgers along an extension of 120 km. The works
will begin in the region known as Bracinho, in northern Pantanal of Mato
Grosso do Sul, and will terminate in Caceres, Mato Grosso. Authorization
has already been issued by Ibama to the Docks Company of Sao Paulo, part of
the Transportation Ministry and responsible for navigation on the Paraguay
River.
This week, three superdredgers arrived in Caceres, and next week, three
more will be in Mato Grosso do Sul to begin work. Environmentalists have
already protested, and are calling this fact the beginning of the
construction of the Hidrovia Parana-Paraguay in the Pantanal.
The coordinator of the Technical Commission of the Rios Vivos Coalition, an
entity which also includes environmentalists from the United States and
Europe, Mauricio Galinkin, met with the president of Ibama, Eduardo
Martins, to express concern with the dredging. He said that Martins
promised to analyze his information and to try to resolve the question in
the best way possible, but this promise was made a week ago and nothing has
yet happened. He was shown an EPIA (Preliminary Environmental Impact
Assessment) which he considered poorly done and insufficient, given the
size of the works being carried out.
Yesterday afternoon, the Correio do Estado contacted those at Ibama in
Brasilia responsible for the authorization. They say that this is not a new
project, and according to them the organ has been granting this same
license for the past 20 years. Galinkin comments that this is hypocritical
on the part of Ibama, and what is actually taking place is the functioning
of the Hidrovia Parana-Paraguay.
He said that to de-characterize the project, as not being part of the
hidrovia, it was given the name of "Routine Maintenance Dredging". "The
current EPIA does not address the functioning of the hidrovia itself,
evaluating only the impact of dredging, as a means of disguising what is
really going on," he said.
Generally, environmentalists analyze that Ibama's authorization goes
against public declarations of president Fernando Henrique Cardoso to not
construct the Parana-Paraguai Hidrovia and also contradicts his message
regarding the Pantanal on September 21st, Arbor Day.
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Glenn Switkes, Director, Latin America Program,
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703-1576, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
South America:
Tel/Fax/Message: +55 65 791 1313
email: glen@nutecnet.com.br
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