Legal setbacks against a dam in the Amazon raise questions about Brazil’s reliance on hydropower

By Gabriela Sá Pessoa SAO PAULO (AP) — The Belo Monte hydropower plant in the Brazilian Amazon, one of the world’s largest, was designed to channel water from the Xingu River in a way that would avoid the need for large reservoirs, which could flood surrounding areas. After years of legal battles, authorities approved the project, located in the southwestern part of the state of Para, on one condition: it would not threaten ecosystems and communities of Indigenous people along stretches of the river. A decade after operations began in 2016, Brazilian courts have found that Belo Monte failed to meet that requirement and that its environmental and social impacts were far greater than forecast. “They were just confirming what we already knew,” said Ana Laíde Barbosa, a member of…

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