Legal fight doesn’t stop construction of Chalillo
For the last several years the often harsh debate over construction of a hydroelectric dam on the upper Macal has been largely academic. That is, while the pros and cons of the Chalillo project were argued in the press and courts, the river kept right on rolling, oblivious to the increasingly rancorous exchange. But now, after many delays, the big machines are finally working…and the once quiet valley is about to change.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Three months after groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the Chalillo Hydro-Electric project, the site looks very different. Belize Electricity Limited is working on access roads, as well as finding sites for a quarry, batching and crushing plants. But the company’s biggest accomplishment has been the completion of the cofferdam.
Sixteen thousand cubic meters of material have been dumped on the eastern side of the river in preparation for the rainy season.
Joseph Sooknandan, Chalillo Project Manager
“If you have a river that is normally flowing and if you want to work on any side of the banks of the river, what you need is something to prevent the water from getting into the banks of the river. So the cofferdam basically prevents water from getting to the sides of the river so that we can pour the concrete on the sides of the river. That is the first thing you do, you have to build like a diversion, so that when the actual dam is being built, the river can continue to flow through a diversion. So that cofferdam allows you to be able to work on the right abutment of the dam.”
Construction is moving quickly at the Chalillo project site. The cofferdam is complete and B.E.L. engineers say that by the end of the year work on the actual dam will begin.
Joseph Sooknandan
“Pouring for the actual dam will start in December, or the latest January. There are some other preparatory work that we have to do, for example as I said, we have to build a diversion so that once we start working on the actual dam that diversion will allow the river to continue to flow in its normal channel.”
Today things were quiet at Chalillo, but crews from Belize Mining Construction Company have been busy drilling, blasting and excavating.
David Michael, Belize Mining Construction Co.
“We are drilling to let them test the area for the dam. We are doing drilling for the sites where they will be setting up their crushers and different short of things like that.”
Janelle Chanona
“What sort of rock you finding out here?”
David Michael
“We mostly, the only rock we buck up to right now is the granite stones. That’s the type of rock that’s out there right now.”
But environmentalists are trying to keep Chalillo and B.E.L. between a rock and a hard place, taking their case to the Privy Council in London after attempts in Belize failed to convince two lower courts. Chalillo’s project manager, Joseph Sooknandan, says any break in the work will cost the company money.
Joseph Sooknandan
“If there’s a delay you lose a significant amount of money. If you are to stop the works now, you lose a large amount of money and it all depends on how much you lose. But if you had a small delay, yes you can continue. If you have a long delay it becomes a financial issue.”
For now, things are moving as scheduled. The contractor hired to build the dam, the Chinese Water Resources Hydro Power Engineering Corporation, is setting up shop in the nearby village of Augustine. And pretty soon–unless the Privy Council intervenes–the landscape of the Upper Macal River will begin to change even more drastically.
According to B.E.L., officials from the Department of the Environment visit the site on a weekly basis for environmental monitoring.
