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12 January 2011 | News | Extractive industries
Foretold Disaster
Colombia: basin threatened by Hidrosogamoso Dam
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In Sogamoso River’s Basin, Colombia, where Hidrosogamoso Dam is being built, highways have been completely destroyed and communities have been displaced. But the worst is yet to come.
This is what the Social Movement for the Defense of Sogamoso River, the National Network of People Affected by Dams, and the Latin American Action Network against Dams (REDLAR) are denouncing. They demand the immediate suspension of the megaproject before the area becomes inhabitable, or even worse, a death trap.
In times where the eyes of the world are set on the catastrophe in Haiti after the earthquake a year ago, the organizations state that the megaproject is located in areas with seismic potential and said that the experience of over 7 decades with this kind of projects indicates that megaprojects increase the risk of earthquakes.
Hidrosogamoso Dam is being built in “active and unstable, or potentially unstable areas, which would increase risks” and would threaten the lives of the people affected by the dam or who live near the project. The project is located in one of the seismic active areas of Colombia, less than 70 km from earthquake nest Bucaramanga and it requires the excavation of 980,000 square meters.
The actions to achieve the definite suspension of the project include mobilizations in the affected territory and the submission of letters to Environment, Housing and Land-Use Development Minister Beatriz Elena Uribe Botero.
The letter establishes that “pursuant to the principle of precaution it is extremely necessary to suspend Hidrosogamoso’s works, because the irreversible and serious risks are beginning to come true, with landslides and the destruction of Bucaramanga-Barrancabermeja Road.”
The organizations working with the communities in the Sogamoso River’s Basin are expressing their rejection to the “recklessness of the companies that are building the dams, which continue risking the survival of the communities even though they are working with the highest standards in technological terms.”
And they are also denouncing that the authorities are not providing clear and relevant information about the vulnerability of the communities with the building of the dam.
