BACONGO holds forum on Chalillo Dam
The proposed Chalillo Dam has had its fair share of support and criticism alike. Last week, B.E.L. opened the floor for questions from the general public. Today BACONGO, the Belize Alliance of Conservation NGOs, had its turn to discuss the project. The energy conference focused on different issues like alternative energy sources as well as the feasibility of Chalillo and its environmental impact. There were no presentations by the Belize Electricity Limited (B.E.L.) today, but that didn’t stop the questions.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Many of the same people who were at the B.E.L. session last week were at the BACONGO forum today. This time, they were there to hear the answer to the question asked by the conference title, “To Dam or Not to Dam?” to find out whether electricity rates will decrease, and the impact of the project on the wildlife and community in the area. According to one of the panelists, many of the questions raised today cannot be answered because all the information is not available in the B.E.L. studies.
Kimo Jolly, Industrial Engineer/Ecological Engineer
“What I am trying to say is industrially, it looks bad. But I can only based that on the summaries, on the little bits of information that have leaked out from B.E.L. Because they’ve withheld a lot of the documents that the public and that I need, so that I can really look at this and say whether it’s good or not. I need the full feasibility study, not the feasibility study with missing…five out of eight sections are missing. I need the numbers so I can look at it and really say whether it’s good or bad.”
Chalillo, a proposed dam and power plant on the Macal River would serve as a reservoir several miles above the existing power station at Mollejon. The Belize Electricity Limited says Chalillo will help Mollejon produce power at a lower price. One invited U.S. NGO feels the project is promising more than it can deliver.
John Reid, Executive Director, Conservation Strategy Fund
“The findings on the economics are that it looks like, in feasibility study, the benefits of the dam are over estimated, because the value of each kilowatt that would come out of the project are higher than what we estimate the value to be. Adjusting for that and adjusting for uncertainty in the generation of power, because we don’t know, at the end of day, how much water is in the Macal River, the economics of the dam go negative and it doesn’t look like a feasible project.”
Chief Executive Officer for the Belize Electricity Limited, Lynn Young, told News Five last Tuesday that the Chalillo Dam is part of their long term strategy to lower the cost of electricity in Belize. Chalillo is estimated to cost around twenty to thirty million dollars and B.E.L. will depend on the results of negotiations with the principal owner of Mollejon, Duke International.
Janelle Chanona
Why would they…why do you think they would go ahead and invest this amount of money if it won’t work out well for them?
Kimo Jolly
“Because whether the dam works or not, the people that build the dam are going to make money. The banks that finance the dam, that’s thirty million U.S. dollars, is going to make money by lending B.E.L. the money to build the dam. There is an incentive to build this dam whether it works or not, because people are going to make a lot of money cutting the deals, borrowing the money, building the dam. If afterwards it doesn’t work, then all they have to do is say, well, sorry we invested all this money in this dam it doesn’t produce as cheap as we expected, sorry, what are we going to do? We raise electricity rates.”
Going ahead with Chalillo would mean flooding about 3.5 square miles of rainforest. Earlier this month, B.E.L. released the Environmental Impact Assessment but during their forum last week, admitted that it was incomplete. Jolly says the public has got to the matter in their own hands to get the answers they need.
Kimo Jolly
“My findings is that it’s missing something like eight sections that by law it’s suppose to include.”
Janelle Chanona
So what’s the next step here?
Kimo Jolly
“The next step is that the public…the E.I.A., is the tool the public has to make sure that before they build this dam, it’s looked at carefully and they look at all the possibilities, economics, how it’s going to impact everything. The next step is when the public finds out that the E.I.A. doesn’t cover all the sections it’s supposed to cover that they demand that it be covered. This can be done by writing letters to the Department of the Environment and that would force the Department of the Environment to include them in the E.I.A.”
But are there alternatives to building the Chalillo dam? B.E.L. has said that they did look at alternatives like additional diesel engines, biomass and combustion turbines but they believe Chalillo will reduce rates at a low environmental price. But today, there was one man from Merida in the Yucatan of Mexico who says he’s got extra energy to sell Belize on a daily basis.
Keith Speak, Construction Manager, A.E.S, Merida 3
“We have excess capacity at the power plant in Merida we think that five megawatts, a firm five megawatts is quite doable and we feel quite comfortable about that. The nature of the power plant is such that at different times of the day, different times of the year, we’ll be able to produce more than five megawatts. Of course this can be negotiated.”
Janelle Chanona
Have you approached B.E.L. with this offer?
Keith Speak
“I sent a letter to Michael Polonio on December 4th. Basically outlining what I just said, five megawatts firm and up to twenty-five megawatts depending on how our ability to produce the power.”
Janelle Chanona
And their response was what?
Keith Speak
“I haven’t received a response at this time.”
B.E.L. has maintained that Chalillo is not a done deal, simply an option they are exploring right now.
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
BACONGO did arrive at some resolutions today. They are asking for more information on the impact of the dam, especially the environmental implications. They also recommended that alternative energy sources, like biomass and purchasing power from Mexico, become options to sustain Belize’s electricity needs. Furthermore they want the issue be put to a national referendum.
