July 19, 2002 |
July 19, 2002 |
|
Today's ECHO activities brought to you by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Today we visited Yacyretá Dam, a
joint project between Paraguay and Argentina, on the Paraná River.
The ECHO 2002 Paraguay participants' experiences with dams in the United
States are related to recreation, hydroelectric power, irrigation, flood
control, and navigation. When talks began in 1902 to dam the river the
primary purpose was for navigation. Upon completion almost a century later
(1997) the longest dam in the world became a hydroelectric complex generating
electricity for Paraguay and Argentina. In 2002 only three ships per month
use the locks for navigation but the electricity that is generated serves
to light towns and cities, streets and highways and makes possible the
use of state-of-the-art technology.
|
|
|
|
|
Water volume of 2,630,000,000 liters per
second passes through 20 Italian made turbines. The president of Argentina
(Menem) once called the project, "a monument to corruption"
costing eight times the original cost estimate. A major financier of the
project, World Bank, reported the dam was one of its worst investments
because operational costs exceed revenue.
|
 |
|
oso hormiguero (anteater) |
The project required that
the animals displaced by the flooding be captured and relocated. We saw
many of the native species at Entidad Binacional Yacyretá Refugio
Faunistico-Antiguy.
|
|
papagallo (macaw) |
tapir |
|
Sunset on the pampa-like savannah of Paraguay near the city of Encarnación |
