Due to lack of bids on November 7 was declared void the bidding of the Hydroelectric Xalalá, planned for the region Ixcán. In the end, none of the nine companies had shown interest in the project proposal to materialize. Also came to public light that company said it had identified social risks, environmental, financial and project implementation. Officials of the National Electrification Institute (INDE) reported that they continue to drive the project would generate 181 megawatts and assured that they are considering other options to finance the project. Since February 2007, ACOGUATE has provided support to several communities that would be affected by the dam Xalalá if it was built.
.......................................... Translation
article that was published in the
San Francisco Chronicle, June 8, 2008
original English version
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[Alejandro Che] Paau Copón was born in Las Margaritas, a village of 300 inhabitants located on the banks of rivers and Copón Chixoy in the northern region of Guatemala. Cardamom corn and dozens of surrounding homes, which can only be reached by boat or on foot.
Crossing the river, 20 minutes from the house Paau, is the proposed site for the second largest hydroelectric dam in Guatemala - the dam Xalalá. Paau community is one of 18 communities that could be flooded by the reservoir of 7.5 square kilometers.
Xalalá The dam is in addition to other projects that the National Electrification Institute (INDE) has developed to attract foreign investment in renewable energy. Is expected to increase by 10 percent of national energy reserves, generating annual profits of between 100 million and 150 million dollars, and affordable energy to more than 2 million people, while saving 4 million barrels of oil per year.
Fredy Lopez, INDE spokesman said that the hydroelectric project presents an opportunity for Guatemala to reduce its dependence on petroleum and imported energy. "Using clean technology, hydropower will increase the productivity of Guatemala and access to energy."
Moreover, the dam would flood the homes of 2,338 people along the river 41 kilometers and 16 kilometers Chixoy Copón River, affecting 36 communities. The government has not presented a plan for compensation and according to Lopez, the Government refuses to testify about these plans at the moment.
In April 2007, the dam-affected communities Xalalá made an inquiry about Xalalá mega-projects and oil exploration in the area - a right guaranteed them by the Constitution and municipal law - of 21.155 voters, 89.7% voted "no." However, Guatemala's highest judicial body, the Constitutional Court has ruled that the results of the consultations are not binding if the issue of consultation is considered a matter of national interest. Paau
expected that the query is respected and cited as legal basis the respective steps of the Constitution and Convention 169 of the International Labour. Both documents recognize the right of indigenous peoples to define "their own priorities in relation to the development process, to the extent that it affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well-being and the lands they occupy or Somehow, and control, to the extent possible, their own economic, social and cultural "
In 1982, the armed forces massacred 177 women and children in Black River, a village on the banks of the Rio Chixoy 50 miles south of Las Margaritas Copón, to build the largest hydroelectric Guatemala. At that time, Achi communities clearly opposed to the dam 300 megawatts. Three massacres occurred in 1982, where 444 of the 791 Black River residents were massacred, according to the Commission for Historical Clarification. Chixoy dam was largely financed by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. The community of Black River and over 27 acres of land were flooded arable. The armed forces forced the survivors to live in a militarized village more than four hours away from the flooded community.
Today, survivors of Black River are still struggling to receive compensation. They live in arid lots babes and eight hours away from arable plots that the government were provided. Although the relocation plan INDE promised them electricity and water free, most people can not pay their electric bills or water, can not even pay the fare to get to their land to farm. INDE maintains that it has complied with the obligations of relocation and that since privatization of utility companies in 1998, and is not responsible for providing electricity to relocated communities or respond to complaints related to restitution.
Although, to date, yet INDE officials have not approached the residents of Las Margaritas Copón, Paau fears that the project Xalalá leave your community with the same problems as those of Black River. "We know that they are not building this dam for us," said Paau.
Aviva Imhof, campaigns director of International Rivers, a nonprofit group based in Berkeley, California, says the government should not push the dam project until it meets its obligations to redress past.
"The government must make a comprehensive assessment of all options to achieve the country's energy needs, and should compensate communities affected by the dam Chixoy, before making any decision to proceed with the project Xalalá," said Imhof. Emiliano
Panjoj, Tzejá mayor of Santa Maria, a village where most people voted against the bill in 2007, states that ecotourism projects small scale, a comprehensive school and a better health center would most benefit their community. "Not that we are against development," says Panjoj, "We just want to be developing on our own terms."
In the meantime, Paau is waiting for any information which may affect the fate of his village. "The Newspapers say that this area is uninhabited, there are only a few families would be relocated, "said Paau. "But we are thousands. For government, rivers mean money. For us, the rivers are our lives. "
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Photo: Coordinating Committee for Consultation, Ixcán
1 Solano, Luis: Xalalá tender fails, INDE insist, Inforpress 1778, 14/11/1908.
2 NISGUA: NISGUA's Report on Guatemala, Volume 28 Number 2, Summer / Fall 2007
three INDE: http://www.inde.gob.gt/xalala/Xalala.html
4 Interview with Fredy Lopez, May 1 to 8 2008
5 Ibid.
6 NISGUA's Report on Guatemala, Volume 28 Number 2, Summer / Fall 2007
7 San Francisco Chronicle, "Placing Blame For Genocide: Guatemalan massacre survivors seek damages "from dam financiers," November 16, 2000, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/11/16/MN94314.DTL&hw=chixoy+dam&sn = 002 & sc = 591
8 Ibid.
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