Construction on a major Brazilian hydroelectric dam in the Amazon has been halted due to rioting at the work site.
|||Construction on a major Brazilian hydroelectric dam in the Amazon has been halted due to rioting at the work site, delaying a key project in President Dilma Rousseff's ambitious infrastructure plan.
The work stoppage, sparked by a wave of violence that began at the Jirau dam on Wednesday night, may prevent its completion by the 2012 target date, according to the consortium led by France's GDF Suez that is building and will operate the dam.
“The project is literally halted,” Victor Paranhos, head of the Energia Sustentavel consortium, told reporters late on Thursday. “We don't know how long it will be stopped ... the incident could lead to a reevaluation (of the time frame).”
The 3,450 megawatt Jirau dam, being built on the Madeira River in the Amazon state of Rondonia near the border with Bolivia, is part of Rousseff's PAC infrastructure investment program, which includes nearly $1 trillion in planned outlays.
The dam is one of only a few large hydroelectric projects that the government has managed to get into the construction phase in recent years, and is seen as pivotal to keeping up with growing energy demand from Latin America's largest economy.
Some 20,000 employees are working on construction at the site, where rioters - including masked men who do not work at the facility - set fire to buses and a housing complex apparently after a dispute between two workers, Paranhos said.
While the incident appeared isolated, it may add to worries over delays at other major infrastructure projects in Brazil, which is seeking to resolve bottlenecks with investments in electricity generation, port capacity and rail lines.
Civil unrest in Brazil is relatively rare.
The Energia Sustentavel consortium led by GDF Suez, the world's largest energy company, also includes Brazilian energy firms Eletrosul and Chesf and local construction company Camargo Correa. - Reuters
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/rioting-halts-amazon-dam-construction-1.1044022
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