PlanetCatfish.com

I have tended to follow the Belo Monte dam and its impact on the Xingu and the Volta Grande in particular. I have not seen many recent pictures or reports on how things are in the river. I had heard there was a sewage problem in Altamira and behind the upper dam. I heard last fall the river looked awful.

Can any of the folks on this forum who are either living and/or working in that area or who have visited recently give a report on the condition in the Big Bend now?

Thanks.

Here’s a video from the USGS that I was able to find on YouTube that was posted two weeks ago with satellite images taken recently. It’s a short two minute video but it’s very disturbing and extremely disappointing that even though the damage is so extensive that it can be seen from space, that the Brazillian government is advocating for this. To make matters worse, once the construction jobs end all of these migrant workers are going to end up working for logging companies because there aren’t any other jobs available in the region. The whole thing is an ecological and socialogical disaster with thousands of native peoples being displaced and species threatened with imminent extinction in the wild. It really sucks that the first campaign to defeat the dam project just pushed back its time table rather than get it off the table for good. The Brazillian government also has plans for a series of other hydro electric dams throughout the Amazon and the sociological/environmental problems will follow each of them. I’m just praying for a miracle at this point that somehow the native people find a loud enough voice or advocate to fight back against this extermination. It’s going to be the Trail of Tears, but this time in the rainforests of the Amazon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BifaOOz ... ture=share

TY- what that vid won't show is water quality. I find it hard to believe many of the unique species native to the Big Bend will survive this.