The Telegram (St. John’s)

December 21, 2001

The director of the Belize Alliance of Conservation NGOs writes a letter to the editor of Newfoundland’s Telegram.

I am writing on behalf of the Belize Alliance of Conservation Non-governmental Organizations (BACONGO) to express our gratitude to the people of Canada, and in particular Newfoundland, for continuing working to stop Newfoundland-based Fortis from committing a great injustice in our small but proud country, Belize. Fortis wants to build a hydroelectric dam that would solidify its monopoly on power production in Belize and at the same time destroy important parts of our rainforests and Mayan cultural heritage. This dam would be built upstream from an existing dam that Fortis owns, which is responsible for Belize suffering the highest electricity rates in Central America.
Belizeans pay Fortis in U.S. dollars for electricity from the dam, and our electricity rates are crippling: the average Belizean pays more than 30 cents Canadian per kilowatt hour to Fortis, in contrast to Newfoundland’s rate of about eight cents – still high for Canada.
Fortis’s profit per kilowatt hour in Belize is four to eight times higher than in  Newfoundland and Labrador. While a few powerful individuals in Belize favour Fortis’s project, the majority of Belizeans do not trust Fortis and oppose the dam. We have asked for public hearings before any decision is made, but this has been refused to us. We have asked for an independent, non-governmental committee to review the facts. This, too, was refused. Fortis’s control over our energy future seems complete. We ask Fortis now to make all contracts related to the dam public, as well as the contract which forces Belize
to buy power from Fortis’s dam before any cheaper options are considered. We also ask the people of Canada to continue to help us seek justice, and establish an independent panel to investigate the impacts of this proposed dam on environmental and cultural treasures of international significance. Before it’s too late.

Jamillah Vasquez, Director, Belize Alliance of Conservation NGOs