The Balbina disaster: the need to ask why?

Abstract

The Balbina dam cost nearly a billion dollars of public money, destroyed 236 000 hectares of primary forest, formed a gigantic lake of shallow stagnant water, killed millions of wild animals, flooded indigenous lands, is causing hunger and illness to riverine people - all for just 80 megawatts of electricity. Even those responsible for the dam now admit that it is a disaster, yet similar projects are still being built and no investigation has been carried out to discover why, in the face of clear scientific warnings, Balbina was ever constructed. -Author