May 4, 2022

17:05

Ívina Garcia – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The vote on the Complementary Law Project No. 275/2019 that proposes to enable the installation of the Tucuruí Linhão through Waimiri Atroari Indigenous Lands, in Roraima, was postponed to the plenary session of this Wednesday, 4.

The analysis was postponed after a request made by the leader of the PT, Paulo Rocha (PA), for more time to present possible changes in the text. The author of the proposal, Chico Rodrigues (União – RR), agreed with the postponement.

The project aims to build 122 kilometers of road, which will pass through the Waimiri Atroari IT, where more than 2.1 thousand indigenous people live in 56 villages. In the proposal, Senator Chico Rodrigues not only refers to the Linhão de Tucuruí, but asks that the passage of electric energy through Indigenous Lands be “of public interest to the Union”.

The indigenous people are not against the project, but demand that they be consulted about the construction process and demand measures to reduce the impacts on their lands.

The senator recalled that the state of Roraima is the only one in Brazil that is not connected to the National Interconnected System of electricity. “The entire population is worried, because it’s been more than 20 years that this project is being dealt with, in the Executive,” he said during the plenary.

Roraima currently depends on thermoelectric plants that produce more expensive and polluting energy, and on energy sold from Venezuela. According to the rapporteur, 250 energy transmission towers will be installed along 700 kilometers, between Manaus and Boa Vista, the stretch within Indigenous Lands corresponds to 122 kilometers.

The text also requests that indigenous leaders who reside in the area, and who would be affected by the works, be heard and that they have financial compensation “in a manner proportional to the remuneration earned by the provision of public service transmission of electricity,” if the project is sanctioned. The Waimiri Atroari Indigenous Association argues that the compensation is necessary due to the environmental impact of the project.