A Canadian-owned power company could be forced to stop work on its third dam on Belize’s Macal River – underway since earlier this year – if Belizean environmentalists can persuade the Supreme Court to uphold the law.

On Monday, 9 July, in Belize City, the Belize Institute for Environmental Law and Policy (BELPO), acting on behalf of citizens living downstream of two existing dams, filed an action asking the Supreme Court to order the country’s environment department to enforce the law by ordering a Canadian owned power company, the Belize Electric Company (BECOL), to fulfill its obligations under an environmental compliance plan signed with the Belizean government in 2002.

Those living downstream of two existing dams, Chalillo and Mollejon, want BECOL to meet their obligations under the environmental compliance plan for Chalillo before construction of a third dam on the Macal River goes any further.

“Failure to do so puts the lives, property, health and safety of the people and communities downstream of these dams at risk,” says Candy Gonzalez, vice president of the Belize Institute for Environmental Law and Policy. Ms Gonzalez is also a downstream resident and veteran advocate for the protection of the Macal River.
The environmental compliance plan, including a dam break emergency preparedness program, was supposed to commence nearly two years ago, before the Chalillo dam started generating electricity in November 2005.

Prior to flooding by the Chalillo reservoir, the Macal River Valley was internationally renowned for its Maya ruins and abundance of rare birds and wildlife, including the jaguar, tapir, and scarlet macaw.

Fortis won government approval to build Chalillo on condition that it meet the requirements of the environmental compliance plan, a legally binding contractual agreement, which includes putting in place a dam break emergency preparedness plan, water quality monitoring, and various public awareness programs.

”We were promised that tests on the river water and fish would be made public and that residents would be promptly notified of the dangers of drinking the water or eating the fish – but this has not happened,” Gonzalez says.

Meanwhile BECOL started blasting earlier this year in preparation for its third hydro dam downstream of the Mollejon and Chalillo, called Vaca.

Rumors about cracks in the Chalillo dam, which was built on a fault line, persist, says Ms Gonzalez. Water released from the dams is foul-smelling and often has a strange rusty color; people do not know when or whether it is safe to drink or swim in the river, and the number of people using the river has dramatically decreased.

In August 2006, the Office of Health Services issued a study warning that people should limit their consumption of fish due to unsafe concentrations of mercury found in fish samples taken from the river in January 2005, months before the Chalillo reservoir started filling. Other tests were to be done, but residents have not been notified of any tests or results.

Summing up BELPO’s case, Ms Gonzalez explains: ”We are asking the court for our right to know what’s in the dammed Macal River: whether that’s mercury-contaminated fish, water poisoned with toxic algae or the risk of a dam break in the event of a severe storm or earthquake.

“We aren’t even talking about compensation yet.”

For more information and photos, contact Candy and George Gonzalez in Belize 501-824-2476
geocanbz@gmail.com

or Grainne Ryder in Toronto at Probe International
416-964-9223 ext 228
grainneryder@nextcity.com

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Notes
 

TSE-listed Fortis owns the Belize Electric Company (BECOL), which operates the country’s two hydro facilities, Mollejon and Chalillo, which is expected to double power output from the Macal River. Fortis is also the majority owner of Belize Electricity, the company that buys power from BECOL and other suppliers, and then distributes it to nearly 70,000 customers.

The Environmental Compliance Plan (ECP) for Chalillo is a “legally binding document developed by the Department of Environment . . . consisting of a set of legally binding environmental conditions, guidelines, policies and restrictions which the developer or his representative agrees to in writing to abide by as conditions for project approval,” according to Belize’s 2007 Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations.