In 1984, the Brazilian government began work on what is now the fifth largest dam in the world: Tucurui. Thousands of farms and dozens of towns disappeared as flood waters rose over an area the size of Sicily in the heart of the Amazon.

Once hailed as 'pollution-free' energy, the world is beginning to uncover the environmentally damaging truth behind hydroelectric power (HEP). And as Brazil begins work on 'Phase II', Earth Report takes a timely look back at the devastating impact of Tucurui on the region's environment and communities.

Good for the economy?

Electronorte, the Brazilian government's dam company, justified Tucurui on the grounds of progress; local cities would benefit from energy generated by the dam and businesses would be attracted to the area. Indeed, aluminium companies, enticed by cheap electricity, today employ around 2,000 people.

But critics question whether these benefits have made Tucurui a good investment. Two thirds of Tucurui's electricity is despatched to these foreign-owned aluminium companies. But their contracts, for the vast amounts of electricity they use, were tied to the international price of aluminium, which dropped. So, two thirds of Tucurui's electricity has been exported, in the form of aluminium, at a loss of around U.S. 4 billion dollars.

Fishing for a future

Although the dam produced a number of jobs, traditional fishing practices downstream were destroyed. With no 'fish ladder', catch below the dam fell by 80% forcing fishermen to move inside the flooded area where fish were plentiful.

When the government announced plans to zone this area as an environmental reserve, the fishermen feared they would lose out again. Luckily, their rights were taken into consideration this time and were written into the proposed laws, safeguarding their future.

Valley of the Dammed

By 1984, 40,000 people were driven out by the water. Fifteen years later, Earth Report caught up with Lucio Flavio Pinto, Agenda Amazonica, Leader of Dispossessed Farmers and asked him how successful the compensation package offered by the government's colonization agency had been.

He complained that most farmers received only half the land they had been promised and that schools and health clinics had failed to materialise. Even Electronorte agreed that the compensation package had not been enough.

Pollution-free HEP?

Scientists now know that submerged rotting vegetation produces carbon in vast quantities. HEP is not the 'clean' energy it was once branded as.

Decaying biomass from the Tucurui Dam contributes one sixth of Brazil's total greenhouse gas emissions according to the National Institute for Amazonian Research. Between seven and ten million metric tons of carbon were released into the atmosphere from Tucurui in 1990 - emitting more greenhouse gases than the whole city of Sao Paulo, home to 10% of Brazil's population.

Even more worryingly, three quarters of these carbon emissions are in the form of methane which has 21 times more impact per ton of gas than carbon dioxide.

More of the same...

Fifteen years on, the World Commission on Dams Report has heavily criticised Tucurui as environmentally and socially destructive. But these criticisms have fallen on deaf ears as the Brazilian government begins work on a further eleven generators which will raise Tucurui's output to 8000 megawatts.