Belo Monte dam's water demands imperil Amazon communities, environment
Belo Monte dam’s water demands imperil Amazon communities, environment by Tiffany Higgins on 16 December 2020 Norte Energia, the builder and operator of the controversial Belo Monte mega-dam is pushing for implementation of a much disputed “consensus hydrogram” — a plan to annually manipulate water releases into the Xingu River’s Volta Grande (Big Bend), with estimated peak April releases ranging from a mere 4,000 – 8,000 m3/s. Noting that April average historical river flows in the Volta Grande before the dam was built were 19,985 m3/s, analysts say this dearth of water flow wil...