Chileans cry victory as court pulls temporary plug on giant dam project

By a two-to-one vote, an appellate court in Puerto Montt, Chile on Monday agreed to hear appeals filed by four lawmakers and different environmental organizations who are demanding a halt to the construction of a mammoth hydroelectric plant project in the southern Patagonia region.

An injunction against Endesa of Spain and the Chilean company Colbún, which are in charge of the massive five-dam project, will stay in place until the court resolves the issue. The case could take between six and seven months, court sources told EL PAÍS.

The appeals court's resolution is a severe setback for the planned 2.2-billion-euro megawatt HidroAysén plant located in the heart of Patagonia, about 1,650 kilometers south of the capital Santiago. The approval for its construction has led to periodic waves of protest in major cities against the government, whose regional officials have been pushing the project.

However, the Endesa-Colbún consortium has said that the court decision does not affect its work schedule. The ruling "is a judicial decision of an administrative nature that does not stop proceeding with the energy project in the region of Aysen [...]," the company said in a statement. If the plan is given the final go-ahead, the first plants are scheduled to be in operation by 2019, with the entire complex in full force by 2025.

Different view

But environmentalists see it differently. "It's a favorable outcome for us - a ruling that means that there are important reasons to protect our natural resources," Patricio Rodrigo, one of the leaders of the group Patagonia Without Dams, told AFP. He said the decision also "means that work on the project has been stopped in its tracks."

Although planned under the previous center-left government of Michelle Bachelet, the construction of the dams has the support of the current conservative President Sebastián Piñera, who says that energy-import dependent Chile must make plans to meet its future energy demands.

Among the four Chilean lawmakers who filed a complaint was Guido Giraldi, a member of Party for Democracy (PPD), who pledged to take the fight to the Supreme Court or even the International Court of Human Rights if the appellate court rules against them.

The Pascua and Baker rivers, where the dams are planned to be built, are the largest in Chile, with crystal waters fed by thousand-year old glaciers.