14 DAY TRIAL // As one of our previous articles already reported, Brazil is presently a battlefield for energy companies, on the one hand, and environmentalists and indigenous people, on the other.
Thus, energy companies are planning on building a dam complex on the Xingu River, whilst local communities and green heads argue that this will destroy whatever natural habitats are still standing in that part of the world.
If up until recently only verbal clashes occurred between these two sides, it seems that, given the fact that work on the Belo Monte Dam project already began with the building of temporary earthen dams, the indigenous people had no choice but to respond to this and also turn to actions, rather than keep using mere words.
Last Friday morning, 300 locals destroyed an earthen dam whose purpose was that of temporarily blocking a portion of the Xingu River.
Due to the fact that the indigenous people's goal was only that of making a statement, they settled for simply digging a channel across the said dam.
Without raging havoc, this simple solution proved to be as efficient as possible: the earthen dam could no longer block the river's waters, and their gesture received considerable media attention.
This means that they can now focus on making world leaders listen to their complaints, and hopefully be offered some help in dealing with this problem.
According to Mongabay.Com, most of the 300 indigenous people involved in the sabotaging of the Belo Monte Dam project come from the town of San Antonio and Altamira, which is to be partly flooded should the energy companies have their way.
Apparently, one of the leaders of the local people argued that “This battle is far from being over. This is our cry: we want this river to stay alive. This dam will not be built.”
Hopefully, seeing how this occurred a few day before the beginning of the Rio+20 Earth Summit, the communities in this part of Brazil will have their voices heard by those who can actually do something to help them.