The dam calls for diversion of up to 100 kilometers of the Xingu, an Amazon River tributary.
The dam is to be built on the Xingu River in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
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Belo Monte is to be built on the Xingu River in the Amazon, home to virgin rainforest and around 2, 500 natives.
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But these environmental safeguards will also curb Belo Monte's capacity to generate power, which will vary with the flow of the Xingu.
But during the dry Amazon summer, when the Xingu shrinks, Belo Monte's assured output will plunge to an average of 3, 500-4, 500 megawatts.
The dam will not force indigenous populations along the Xingu to relocate, which today that population is estimated to be around 2, 500.
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"In many villages they began to realize that a simple swim in the river caused rashes, " said Ianukula Kaiabisuia, coordinator of Xingu Park.
Even though some of the anti-Belo NGOs, like the Xingu River Movement, are indeed local, they may face the problem of being too local.
The village is essentially surrounded by virgin forest and has no well water and therefore is reliant on the Xingu River for drinking and cooking.
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It is also home to a large swath of virgin rainforest and Belo will be built along the Xingu River, smack dab in the middle of that forest.
Groups represented by the anti-Belo Xingu River Movement have been asking for an audience with Congress to discuss the environmental impact, but have not yet gotten their wish granted.
The dam has been hit by several injunctions from federal prosecutors in the state of Para, where the dam is being built on the Xingu River, an Amazon tributary.
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In a letter to public attorneys general on Tuesday, the Arara tribe said that they were concerned about the quality of potable water derived from the Xingu River, an Amazon tributary.
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Instead of building a great wall across the Xingu to create a massive reservoir, Belo Monte is designed as a run-of-river dam, a technique that harnesses the natural flow of the river to drive the turbines.
Norte Energia said Friday morning that it had created a permanent commission with affected people along the Xingu River, most of them small property owners, farmers and a director of one Amazon based sustainable development research center.
At the time, Dilma was the Minister of Mines and Energy and her major project on the books was the 11, 200 megawatt Belo Monte dam, slated to be built along the Xingu River in the Amazon state of Para.
Hollywood director James Cameron is vehemently opposed to the building of the new 11, 200 megawatt power station, Belo Monte, set to be constructed along Amazon tributary, Xingu, later this year if all of the conditions to an environmental permit are met.
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When Belo gets built, around 20, 000 will have to relocate, hundreds of acres of virgin forest will be flooded, and the Amazon tributary, the Xingu River, will be diverted to feed the turbines that will potentially generate 11, 200 megawatts of electricity if all goes swimmingly well.
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River dwelling tribes that number less than a thousand strong worry that when the diversion is through, the river will no longer be navigable and may see some Xingu tributaries dry out for good, impacting their way of life and a key route to the city of Altamira nearby.
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