Cayo residents prepare for hearing on Vaca dam

The project has been on the table for well over a decade and on July eighteenth the public will get to voice its opinion on the proposed dam on the Macal River at Vaca Falls. The hearing, part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process, is hosted by the Department of Environment and involves the presentation of its E.I.A. by Becol, the generation arm of Belize Electricity Ltd. The proposed impoundment structure and turbine at Vaca is downstream of both Chalillo and Becol’s original Mollejon facility. The Vaca plant would function much like Mollejon in that both sites take advantage of the same water released by Chalillo to generate electricity.

Opponents of the Vaca project have continued to focus on the performance of Chalillo, raising issues of water quality, wildlife, displacement, cost of power and operating efficiency. These questions will presumably be addressed as part of the public hearing. Venue for the meeting is the San Ignacio Hotel at five thirty in the evening, Tuesday, July eighteenth.

In related news, for the first time the reservoir at Chalillo has been filled to capacity. Heavy rains in the Macal watershed over the last week have caused the level to rise to the point that by early afternoon today the water had overflowed the dam and was running down the spillway. Residents downstream may experience an increase in the river’s height, the extent of which will depend on the persistence of the rains.