4 de octubre de 2010 | Noticias | 3er. Encuentro Internacional de Afectad@s por las Represas | Justicia climática y energía
Free Flow
Interview with Soniamara Maranho, of the Movement of Dam-Affected People (MAB) of Brazil
Descargar: MP3 (1.2 MB)
Over 300 delegates from all over the world are participating in the 3rd Meeting of People Affected by Dams, which is taking place in Temaca, Jalisco state, Mexico. Real World Radio interviewed one of the participants, Soniamara Maranho, who explained the global context that led to the dam construction fever.
The Movement of Dam Affected People (MAB) is a member of La Via Campesina and was founded 20 years ago. It operates in 17 Brazilian states.
There are over 1.5 million people directly displaced by dam projects in Brazil.
But the number of people affected by the 2,000 dams in Brazil is much higher.
The key question is “energy for what and for whom” says Soniamara Maranho, who works in Minas Gerais state and is part of the movement’s coordination. “It is clear that this is not built for the Brazilians, who have the 4th most expensive energy in the world. This energy is aimed at transnational corporations, for the extraction of raw materials”, she said.
Water and energy are therefore turned into a commodity, undermining its essential character for the peoples’ benefit. “This kind of energy that is advertised as the cleanest, is actually not clean at all because it excludes the human being”, says the MAB representative.
She also explained why the states of the countries that host such projects are weak and even subsidize the controversial works of transnational corporations with public loans.
