William Ysaguirre
The Belize Reporter
September 2, 2001

Chalillo, if it ever goes through, will not come cheap. The environmental impacts show that Belize and Belizeans will pay a heavy price if the Government insists on pushing through the controversial hydro plan.

It will also result in degradation of the cultural landscape through the disturbance and destruction of heritage features at a Mayan archaeological site which will be submerged by the waters of the reservoir.

These are but some of the impacts documented in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Chalillo dam prepared by AMEC E&C Services Ltd., which the Belize Electricity Limited has invited the Belize public to read and examine.

BEL is not required by law to do this, as any concerned citizen who really wants to read the report may obtain a copy from the Department of the Environment, though there would be some cost and a waiting period.

Copies at libraries

BEL has prepared photocopies of the report for distribution to all the public libraries throughout the country.

The complete Environmental Impact Assessment report is five volumes long. Each volume weighs about 3 pounds. The first volume, the main body of the report, is 287 pages. With the glossary and bibliography it comes to 327 pages. Reading through more than 1,500 pages of the report will be no easy task for the alphabetically challenged.

So the facts about Chalillo are out in plain sight and accessible to all Belizeans, but how many will bother to sift through the 15 pounds of printed word to get to the kernel of truth which is hiding right there in plain sight?

MRUSF

BEL also does not refer to the project as Chalillo, but as the Macal River Upstream Storage Facility, MRUSF for short. But Belizeans use acronyms all the time, right? BEL, BTL, SCUBA, BACONGO, CARICOM, EIA, DEA,… Heck, by this time next year, MRUSF may even be household term.

The cover of the report says it was funded by CIDA (another acronym). That’s the Canadian International Development Agency, although BEL engineer Joseph Sooknandan informed Reporter that BEL also paid part of the cost of the EIA.

The EIA report examines 20 different ways in which the MRUSF at Chalillo may have an impact on the environment.

These are: 1) karst geology 2) earthquake 3) soil quality & quantity 4) Groundwater quality & quantity 5) surface water 6) surface water 7) climate 8) Human health & safety 9) Species at risk 10) designated protected areas 11) fishery resources 12) fish habitat 13) Water quality 14) Sediment quality & quantity 15) Economics 16) Labour employment 17) population & services 18) Traffic & transportation 19) Tourism & recreation and 20) archaeological sites.

Drowned Sites

The report concedes that archaeological sites will be drowned by the ‘footprint’ of the reservoir and states that the EIA results have been forwarded to the Commissioner of Archaeology, but that he has yet to determine any mitigation measures. An attempt to reach Commissioner George Thompson found that he was out in the field and unavailable for comment before press time.

The report offers as consolation the fact that the MRUSF will require the construction of an all weather road, which will ease the movement of tourists to another archaeological site, at Caracol. The BTB has been actively promoting Caracol, but with limited success. Presently visits to the site are discouraged by the poor roads, which cannot be used during the wet season, except by 4×4 vehicles.

Visitor impact

In 1999 the number of visitors to Caracol was 4,800, and the report projects that this number could be increased to 33,400 per annum by the year 2015 with a good all weather road and marketing by BTB. But building an all-weather road to Caracol does not require building a dam at Chalillo.

Among the species of wildlife threatened by the dam development are the Scarlet Macaw parrot and Morelet’s crocodile. The report admits the parrots will be adversely affected, with some qualification.

Macaw woes

Macaws occur throughout Central America, but the Belizean birds are geographically isolated from other Macaw populations, which discourages immigration and encourages genetic separation. The Belizean birds may have bred themselves into a distinct subspecies. If they haven’t, the EIA says, their deaths will not be have significant impact on other populations.

In all this attention to detail, it may be difficult to focus of the larger picture.

Global Warming

Conservationists are concerned about global warming, caused by gases which destroy the ozone layer.

These gases are produced by burning fossil fuels, so a hydroelectric power station, which burns no fuels, may seem environmentally sound. Several researchers studying global warming have postulated that man, as species, may have already passed the point of no return in terms of global warming. Its effects: the melting of the polar ice caps, the rise of sea levels, flooding of low-lying countries like the Netherlands and Belize are prospects which haunt maritime communities.

Dinosaur Croc

The world is reminded of the fate of the dinosaurs which became extinct, because they could not adapt to changes in the environment. In examining the microcosm of the MRUSF ‘footprint’, AMEC & E & C Services found that the Morelet’s crocodile, a distant descendant of the dinosaurs, lives in the upper reaches of the Macal River. In fact, it is the only population of Morelet’s in the world which lives that high above sea level and in a fast flowing river.

Man is presently the dominant species in the world, but as the recent crocodile attacks have shown, man can quickly get knocked to the bottom of the food chain. If man is to avoid extinction, we must be not be shortsighted.

Say $60 million

Even if Belize ignores the ecological warnings, she should not ignore the cost: US$27.3 million. That’s $54.6 million Belize dollars and does not include the Bze$2 million that it will cost to clear the area of the reservoir so that decaying vegetation underwater does not produce greenhouse gases. But some people are already ’rounding off this figure to $60 million in anticipation of cost overruns.

On balance the MRUSF study of the environmental impacts at Chalillo shows many negatives.

Chalillo, if it ever goes through, will not come cheap. The environmental impacts show that Belize and Belizeans will pay a heavy price indeed if the Government insists on pushing through with this controversial plan.