The Philippine Online Chronicles

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Aneel, the electric energy agency for Brazil, suspended the auction of the 11,000 megawatt Belo Monte hydroelectric dam that was scheduled for midday (1500 GMT) on Tuesday.

The suspension came in the wake of an injunction filed by a public prosecutor in a federal tribunal in northern Para. The same court had accepted an earlier injunction the previous Wednesday, which had temporarily suspended the auction of the dam, but that injunction had been overturned late last week.

The new injunction also ordered environmental agency Ibama to rescind a preliminary environmental clearance on which the auction depends to move forward. Apparently, samples that had been provided during public hearings were ignored during the process of environmental impact analysis for the project.

The government of Brazil can appeal the ruling, and the attorney general has already taken the necessary steps to that effect. A spokesman for Aneel, who declined to be named in line with institutional policy, said that Aneel is prepared to proceed with the auction as originally planned, even if the decision is overturned mere minutes before the established time.

Reuters remarked that it has been common for the government to overturn injunctions just minutes before large, politically sensitive tenders or privatizations of state assets.

If built, the controversial Belo Monte project, which would dam the Xingu River in the Amazon rain forest, would be the third largest hydroelectric project in the world. Construction costs could run up to USD17 billion (USD757.52 billion).

The administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has touted the dam as a source of clean energy that is essential in meeting current and future energy needs.

It has, however, faced stiff opposition from environmentalist and indigenous groups, who claim that Belo Monte would have serious social and environmental consequences, including the devastation of wildlife and the destruction of livelihoods.

One of the more high-profile figures involved in the protest against the construction of the dam is Canadian film director James Cameron. Cameron has compared the ongoing struggle to his blockbuster hit movie Avatar, which depicts the Na'vi, a fictitious race fighting to protect its homeland, the forest-covered moon Pandora, from invaders who want to exploit its resources.