Endesa casts doubt on Ralco dam construction
August 3, 1999
Chile's largest power generator Endesa said it will decide in September whether or not to complete construction of the controversial Ralco hydroelectric dam, which threatens the ancestral homeland of around 80 indigenous families.
Endesa General Manager, Spaniard Francisco Garcia, said the company has invested 40 percent of the total US$500 million required to build the project, but this didn't mean they had reached a "point of no return."
According to various sources, Garcia confirmed the company's belief that as long as the dam isn't built Endesa can always change its mind, although this would mean losing some of the 40 percent invested so far. Endesa will always find alternative sites to build on, the sources said.
Construction of the Ralco dam would involve flooding 3,395 hectares of the upper Bio Bio valley with 1.2 billion cubic meters of water. A central dam has already been built and if plans go ahead the project will generate 570MW of electricity by 2002. Indigenous Pehuenche inhabitants of the valley are campaigning to postpone indefinitely construction of the dam. Endesa has been negotiating, so far unsuccessfully, to reach an agreement whereby the families would be relocated to an alternative site.
Source: El Mercurio, La Tercera
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