Evictions of urban families affected by Belo Monte have started

Norte Energia have started at this Wednesday the removal of families in urban areas of Altamira, areas which will be flooded by the lake of the Belo Monte’s dam. The inhabitants informs that the families are withdrawn by different groups, and that immediately after the removal, the house is totally demolished and the material is taken to incineration.

Ana Paula (21), is one of the first ones to be removed, she has three children and she is worried about their schooling: “here the school of the children is far, and where we are going the school is even more distant. The company promised transport for the children, but there is nothing guaranteed.”

The Basic Environmental Plan contents the building of a Collective Urban Resettlement. The Norte Energia itself released a leaflet affirming that the houses would be of masonry and there would be three types of houses. Now, the families are obliged to go to an allotment of concrete houses. The company registered 7,790 families, but the expectation is to resettle only about 4 thousand. The intention is to complete the removal this year for not delaying the schedule of the construction, which foresees the filling of the lake at bigging of 2015

“Belo Monte is an emblematic case of prepotency, inside the general pattern of aggression of the Human Right at the construction of dams in Brazil. The removal of families at the low areas in Altamira is clearly a “social cleaning” which has the objective to hide and disperse the impoverished people and transform the low areas in rich areas beside the lake, affirms Claret Fernandes, of the Movement of Affected by Dams (MAB).

The MAB also denounces the placement of families in allotments and concrete homes as a typical case of transformation of the law of the affected into a profitable business for companies.