Resolution about Paranà Medio Project, South America
Discussed and approved at the ISDE Directing Committee (Florence, 1998)
ISDE, represented by 20.000 doctors and scientists in over 100 nations, with more than 30 national and regional associations, appeals to the public:
* A series of new dams are threatening the people who live in areas that will be flooded. These projects might have advantages, but they should only be allowed when environmental and human rights questions have been met.
ISDE opposes mega-dam projects for human health reasons. ISDE agrees that the access to energy will have positive effects on public health and sanitation. ISDE is convinced that this aim can be reached by other ways than building big dams.
Other organizations oppose destructive dams for a wide range of reasons. See for this the Declaration of Curitiba, Brazil, March 14, 1997.
The mega-dam project in the Rio de la Plata Basin in South America is one of the most outspoken examples of destructive dams. It will be used as an example in this Declaration.
* A mega-project is threatening the health, security and quality of life of millions of people in the Rio de la Plata Basin in South America: an area of more than 3 million square kilometres.
The main health effects are infections caused by the spread of vector borne diseases such as dengue, malaria, accidents during construction time, illness related to major socio-economic changes. Effects in the long run are food production effects, biodiversity decrease and greenhouse effects by decay of rotting trees.
* It is a mega-dam project on the Parana Medio river, in Argentina, which particularly threatens to flood 760.000 hectares of an alluvial valley unique in the whole world. It will destroy its traditional cultures, along with its fishing, agrarian, forestry and tourist activities, curtailing any possibility of subsistence, work and sustainable development of the involved populations.
* Dams, canalisations and hydroways are part of the enormous works that were projected for the area of the Parana, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers, without even consulting the people who have lived there since a long time thanks to the resources of the ecosystem. This is about to be damaged.
* Burning of thousand of hectares, deforestation as well as destructive activities on the marshlands are of great concern, since these activities are degrading a unique area on the planet, which covers the territories of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. These activities will also jeopardize the security of the fluvial seashore of Argentina.
* Speaking from our medical and scientific responsibility we demand from the responsible politicians: