Brazil: More than 50 organizations denounce the project to create the Araguaia-Tocantins Waterway (HAT)
We publish an unofficial translation of an article of A Nova Democracia.
More than 50 organizations signed a note denouncing the project to create the Araguaia-Tocantins Waterway (HAT). The note warns that those currently interested in implementation are using tricks such as dividing and approving this great imperialist project in stages.
Several researchers, people’s movements and entities were present at a public hearing on August 28th held by the Environment Committee of the Senate demanding the cancellation of the waterway project as a whole. According to the note, the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) itself corroborates “the request to cancel the licensing granted for the construction of a part of the waterway in Pará”.
The professor of the Federal University of South and Southeast of Pará, Dra. Cristiane Cunha says that “it is necessary to understand that the Araguaia-Tocantins Waterway project is linked to other large projects in the basin”. She also highlights that several communities were not heard and even so, “the direct impacts of the prior license go beyond what the license itself requested, which would be from Marabá to Baião. We need to understand that it is from Marabá to Barcarena and that the direct impacts are not only in section two, which is the landslide section, which is from Tauiry to Bogéa Island.” She concludes: “therefore, all municipalities, all communities in the stretch need to be considered in the licensing process, because they will all be directly impacted. All other municipalities like Mocajuba, Cametá, Igarapé-mirim, Limoeiro de Ajuru, Abaetetuba and Barcarena are not being considered; they were not even mentioned in the licensing process.” According to Cunha, these municipalities and the communities within them are being “ignored and systematically made invisible in this project”.
The researcher at the Paraense Emílio Goeldi Museum, Dr. Alberto Akama, asks who is interested in the construction of HAT. “It is also important to mention issues not directly linked to the licensing process. For example: for whom will this work be done for? For whom are the benefits for? For the Brazilian people or for producers and miners?” He continues to state that “these initial demolition works, this pilot test, still lack more precise monitoring measures”. He guarantees that it is another “senseless” initiative.
The Araguaia-Tocantins Waterway Project
In a note, the organizations describe this great imperialist enterprise in the birthplace of the Amazonias: “The project, organized by the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT), seeks to facilitate the flow of agricultural and mineral commodities, but involves significant interventions in the riverbed of the Tocantins river”.
Along the river there are several traditional riverside communities that were not even considered, “prior, free and informed consultation was lacking in the communities that will be impacted, and there was no proof of the viability of the work.” The project foresees interventions that include “the removal of sandbanks (dredging) and rocky outcrops (slide) along 560 km of the Tocantins Rive, creating a navigation channel for large vessels and convoys of barges.”
