Hydroelectric Project Threatens Chile’s Lake Neltume
Hydroelectric Project Threatens Chile’s Lake Neltume
By Marianela Jarroud
SANTIAGO, Feb 6 2013 (IPS) - “This is paradise and they want to destroy it. This has had an enormous psychological impact on us,” says Guido Melinao, leader of the Mapuche indigenous community of Valeriano Cayicul, referring to the Neltume hydroelectric power plant project planned by the Spanish-Italian consortium Endesa-Enel.
The plant, to be built with an investment of 781 million dollars, would have an installed capacity of 490 megawatts and generate an estimated average of 1,885 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually.
In addition to the hydropower plant, which will be run with the waters of the Fuy River and empty into Lake Neltume, Endesa-Enel’s plans also include the construction of a high-tension power line to distribute the electricity through Chile’s Central Interconnected System.
The project was submitted to the Environmental Impact Assessment System in February 2010, but was withdrawn after receiving more than 500 observations. It was resubmitted in December of the same year.
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/02/hydroelectric-project-threatens-chiles-lake-neltume/
