Woman affected by Belo Monte participated in commercial about resettling but does not receive house

Affected by Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant, Ellisandra recorded a commercial for the company about the relocation for the urban resettlement. The ad, released in January 2014, says that Elissandra already “won” her house. Tem months later, she is still living in a stilt house and alleges that the company only offered her R$10 thousand indemnity.

Elissandra Oliveira, affected by the biggest infrastructure Project in Brazil, the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant; in construction phase on the Xingu riverbank; in Pará, says she was deceived by the company Norte Energia (owner of Belo Monte) to record the commercial about the resettlements.

The inhabitant of Belo Monte says she agreed to record the commercial after she was guaranteed that she would receive a house. “I was working and they asked me: Elissandra, I will give you 10 thousand or a house. Then I said: I´ll take the house. I´ll do it and I´ll accept a house. Well, so I went. The next day, I went to the hair salon, did my hair and did the interview with them”, she remembers.

Tem months after the commercial broadcast, Elissandra is still in the same situation of thousands other affected by Belo Monte, which means, without the right to resettlement.    

Of the 7,790 families registered in the urban area of Altamira, only 3,980 will receive a house in the new lots. The rest will have to content themselves with insufficient figures to buy houses in the area, which has suffered high inflation rates since the beginning of the construction.

Besides these, the Movement of those Affected by Dams estimates that 10.7 thousand more people are excluded from the socioeconomic register, which has raised a series of conflicts and mobilizations in the last few months.