The Amazon River hydropower project continues

The federal high court in Brazil ruled to continue the construction of the Monte Belo dam project on the Amazon River, according to BBC 3-3.

Belo Monte Dam will be an ' ecological and social disaster ', according to environmentalists -

The verdict was made less than a week after the Para State Court ordered a suspension of the Belo Monte giant hydropower dam project in the southern Para state on the grounds that the dam would destroy the rainforest environment. Amazon.

Para State Court Judge Ronaldo Desterro said the Brazilian Environmental Agency has approved a plan to build the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River (the main branch of the Amazon River in the southeast) without ensuring that the project This value of nearly 19 billion USD meets 29 environmental requirements.

However, on March 3, judge Olindo Menezes of the federal court canceled the order, saying that builders do not have to meet all environmental requirements until construction begins.

The third largest hydroelectric dam in the world after the Three Gorges Dam (China) and Itaipu (Brazil - Paraguay), the Belo Monte dam is 6 km long with an estimated capacity of 11,233 MW. The Brazilian government confirmed Belo Monte will supply electricity to 23 million households in the region and create hundreds of thousands of jobs for local people.

However, the project has met with opposition from people in the Amazon and environmentalists, fearing that the dam will destroy the ecological environment of the Amazon forest and make tens of thousands of people homeless.