South America- The Amazon Basin
"Good policies can turn around the worst-performing economies, but rapid development cannot be achieved by
domestic financing alone."
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
Basin Description
Transboundary Issues: a global perspective
Amazon Basin future
Samuel Dam Case study
Questions for discussion
Basin Description
The Amazon Basin is the largest hydrographic basin in the world, and it represents about 1/3 of South
America. The Amazon is one of the largest rivers in the world. With more than 1,000 tributaries, the
Amazon River network includes almost half of South America. The Amazon itself is 6,516 km (4,050
miles) long. Its total drainage basin is nearly as large as the entire United States. The Amazon Basin
has a very warm and humid climate. It rains almost 200 days of the year, and per year rainfall
exceeds 2,000 mm (80 inches). The flow of the river into the sea is about 10 times the flow of the
Mississippi and 56 times the flow of the Nile, about 1.8 million m³/s (28 billion US gallons per
minute).
Tides affect the Amazon River almost 1,000 km (600 miles) inland because of the shallow gradient.
An interesting fact is that the river delta is so large that it splits into channels around numerous
islands. One island, Marajo, is as big as New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
Transboundary Issues: a global perspective
The amazon basin is composed by 9 different
sub-basins and they are Ica-putumayo, Japura,
Jurua, Madeira, Maranon, Purus, Rio Negro,
Tapajos, Ucayali and Xingu. Some of these subbasins are shared by different countries, for
example the Ica-putumayo is shared by
Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. Due to the
abundant amount of hydric resources, there is
not an issue of water scarcity, but there are other
issues that affect these very poor regions.
The different countries that share these basin are: Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana
Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
South America- The Amazon Basin
Leonardo A. Ramirez (Nov 10th 2005)
Page 2 of 3
Amazon Basin Future Development:
Avanca Brasil (Forward Brazil) is a massive program(338 projects: $ 43B dollars) of planned
infrastructure construction and other activities that are being implemented to stimulate economic
activity and progress in Brazil. The diverse type of infrastructure projects to be developed under
Avanca will have a wide range of impacts, specially from road construction, industrial waterways
construction and hydroelectric dams The latter two, would have severe impacts on aquatic
ecosystems and indigenous populations and especially in the case of the Paraguay-Parana (Pantanal)
Waterway, will impact on neighboring wetlands and wildlife.
Generic Licensing process:
One problem with the licenses to begin a project is that powerful interest groups in favor of project
construction are mobilized before the environmental impacts are assessed.
The projects are essentially presented to investors without even bothering on weighting the costs and
benefits of the proposed projects. Finally, once financing has been mobilized for a specific project, a
lobby of parties with financial interests’ starts pushing for government approval regardless of
environmental and social impacts.
Other common problems in the region are:
Lack of vision in the project selection and interaction. Currently the projects are being picked
without analyze future consequences and then in turn new projects are needed in order to fix the
mistakes of initial projects.
The commonly known “Vampire projects” or projects that are judged to be politically unpromising
due to criticism of their expected impacts, that lie dormant for decades only to reemerge at a more
politically favorable moment, are very damaging projects with high environmental impacts.
A Case Study: Samuel Dam
Basin Description
The Samuel Dam is located on the Jamari River, 52 km from the city of Porto Velho, Rondonia in
Brazil. The reservoir was almost under tropical forest at the time it was flooded. The stream flood of
the Jamari River is limited, with an average annual flow of 366 m3/s. In comparison with existing
dams in the Brazilian Amazonia, the average residence time of Samuel Dam is one of the highest on
the region (useful indicator of low water quality). The region where the dam was built is flat.
Amazonian soils are millions of years old and have been accumulating mercury from deposition in
rain and dust from volcanic eruptions and other sources around the world and the acidity.
Acidification is a naturally occurring process in nature. In tropical areas with high rainfall, natural
acidification of soils and surface waters is common. However, tropical areas are especially sensitive
to further acidification by increased atmospheric deposition of sulfate and nitrate ions.
Politics
When the construction began on this Dam, Brazil was still ruled by a military dictatorship that
restricted public discussion of water projects. Military-appointed government officials pressed for
the development of Rondonia and ultimately helped finding investors to finance the project.
South America- The Amazon Basin
Leonardo A. Ramirez (Nov 10th 2005)
Page 3 of 3
There has been a tendency to start “colonizing” the “legal amazon” which is a vast region that
comprises almost 2/3rds of the Brazilian territory, where the population density is of about 4 people
per km2.
Environmental impact assessment
This Dam was constructed at a time where environmental impact studies were not mandatory
required in Brazil. Planners of this dam did not asses an alternative mean of energy supply for the
region, and even though this is a case of high environmental impact relative to the power it generates
as it was pointed out by a World’s Bank representative, the construction of the Dam was not halted.
Lessons for the Future
The Samuel Dam is just one example of what can go wrong in a project implementation. The
challenge presented by the future development of the Amazon Basin are enormous, and will require
the further strengthen of Brazil’s environmental impact assessment system in order to be capable of
dealing with the many types of impacts expected from the development plan. The timing of the
environmental impacts needs to be changed in order to provide input to the planning process instead
of just legitimizing projects after the approval decision has already been taken.
Nothing will stop development and progress in the region, especially when Brazil is becoming one of
the major soybean exporters in the world. International cooperation can be useful to improve project
planning strategies.
Questions for Discussion
Development in the Amazonia Basin region is just beginning and it has been compared to the 19thcentury “wild west” of the United States.
The rich hydrology of the region presents an opportunity for several water and hydropower related
projects. Do you think a global policy should be adopted in order to limit the number of projects
(Dams, waterways) for this region? How can future projects avoid the mistakes made in older water
projects?
Required Reading:
Fearnside, P.M (2005) Brazil’s Samuel Dam: Lessons for Hydroelectric Development Policy and the
Environment in Amazonia. Environmental Management, Vol 35, No. 1, pp. 1-19
Suplemental Material:
Fearnside, P.M, (2002) Avanca Brasil: Environmental and Social Consequences of Brazil’s Planned
Infrastructure in Amazonia. Environmental Management Vol. 30, No. 6, pp. 735-747.
Fearnside, P.M, (1990) Social Impacts of Brazil’s Tucurui Dam. Environmental Management, Vol.
24 No. 4 pp. 483-495
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