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dam-l LS: Ralco Dam Opponents Up the Ante
CHIP NEWS
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Date: February 14, 2000
Subject: Ralco Dam Opponents Up the Ante
Source: El Mercurio, La Tercera
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RALCO DAM OPPONENTS UP THE ANTE
Two high profile opponents of the controversial Ralco hydroelectric dam, Dep. Alejandro Navarro and ecologist Juan Pablo Orrego, said last week that there had been fundamental "irregularities" in the Economy Ministry's approval of the project last month and appealed to the Comptroller General to overturn the decision. "We know there was pressure from high up in La Moneda presidential palace on the ministry to approve the project." Orrego said. According to Navarro and Orrego, the ministerial decrees approving concessions to build the dam and generate electricity in the upper Bio Bio Valley, Regions VIII and IX, violate the both the national Electricity and the Indigenous laws and are contrary to the interests of the nation. They also allege that power company Endesa had failed to present suitable plans to the Water Authority at the time the firm requested the concession, and hadn't consulted one of the land owners, both of which are required by the Electricity Law. AS well, they said Endesa doesn't own the water rights necessary to obtain the concession, the project goes against the wishes of the local indigenous population and that there are alternative, cheaper ways of generating electricity for the area. Orrego, who is the leader of the pressure group Action for the Bio Bio (GABB) and a Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel prize) winner, has been working to stop the Ralco project since preliminary work began in 1995. Work on the project has been halted several times due to opposition from nine of the 95 indigenous Pehuenche families whose ancestral homelands would be destroyed if the project goes ahead
*** Chip News
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Monti Aguirre
Latin American Campaigns
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA. 94703 USA
Phone: 510 . 848.11.55 and 707 . 591 .91.49
Fax: 510 . 848.10.08
e-mail: monti @irn.org
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