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Subject: LS: Appeals Court to Consider Ralco Lawsuits
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Date: April 7, 2000
Subject: Appeals Court to Consider Ralco Lawsuits
Source: CHIP News
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The Santiago Appeals Court decided Wednesday to consider two
lawsuits presented by ecologists and indigenous people opposed to the
Ralco hydroelectric dam project in the upper Bio Bio in Region VIII, said
lawyer Matias Coll.
The lawsuits presented by Pehuenche sisters Nicolasa and Berta
Quintreman are directed against President Ricardo Lagos and Economy,
Mining and Energy Minister Jose de Gregorio, whose ministry granted power
company Endesa the final decrees last month to go ahead with the
project. One of the lawsuits alleges the 570 MW project breaches the
indigenous law and the other contests Endesa's claim to water rights in
the area. The issue is currently being considered by National Water
Authority director Humberto Pena.
The sisters, along with nine indigenous families, are opposed to
the project, as it would flood a huge stretch of the upper Bio Bio Valley
and destroy their ancestral homeland.
Endesa, controlled by the Spanish company of the same name,
stopped work on the project early in March, as it lacked the decrees for
the hydroelectric generator and the corresponding transmission
lines. Endesa General Manager Francisco Garcia said Wednesday there was
no reason for the mega-project not to go ahead, and that the company
planned to invest US$750 million in the project over the next two years.
Endesa originally planned to invest US$560 million in
Ralco. US$150 million has already been spent and 18 percent of the central
wall is finished. The project is due to come on-line in the second half
of 2003, six months after the original planned start-up date, according to
Garcia.
Around 100 construction workers formerly contracted by the company
before operations shut down in March protested the delay in restarting
operations by blocking a road in the Palmuch area of Region VIII
Wednesday. Last weekend Endesa said operations would begin by this past
Tuesday at the latest.
And ecologists and indigenous people also stood up in protest at
an Endesa shareholders meeting Wednesday at the very moment police were
clearing the building because a bomb threat, which turned out to be a
hoax.
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Ignacio Fernandez A.
International Rivers Network Internet Coordinator
http://www.irn.org/ ignacio@irn.org
Phone: 510-848-1155 ext.307 Fax: 510-848-1008
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"There is no longer such a thing as a purely natural weather event"
Dr Mike Hulme, UEA Norwich UK