Chinese dam builders rush to Latin America

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There has been a huge increase in Chinese dam projects in South America, which has expanded China's geopolitical clout in the continent but also drawn allegations of poor corporate social responsibility. "China's involvement in hydropower development in Latin America has grown significantly since 2010. It's fair to say that Chinese dam-building companies are targeting the Latin American market," said Grace Mang, China programme director at International Rivers, a green non-governmental organisation in the United States. Before 2010, International Rivers was aware of only two Chinese hydropower projects in Latin America, both in Belize, Mang said. Now, there are 22, of which three are completed, seven are under construction and 12 are on the drawing board.

The three completed Chinese dams are in Belize and Ecuador with a total installed capacity of 47 megawatts and costing more than US$30 million. The seven being built are in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras, with a total installed capacity of 2,087 MW and costing more than US$2.53 billion. Among them is the US$1.7 billion Coca Codo Sinclair dam being built by Sinohydro, a Shanghai-listed state-owned dam builder, and financed by the Export-Import Bank of China. The 12 proposed hydropower projects are in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Honduras, Peru and Argentina, with a total installed capacity of 5,069 MW. The total budget, which includes funding from Latin American sources, is more than US$12.25 billion, according to International Rivers. These include two in Argentina to be built by Shanghai-listed China Gezhouba and Argentine firms with a total value of US$4 billion, which will be financed by China Development Bank and Bank of Communications.

Latin America was the second-biggest hydropower market in the world after China, said Mang. "So it's no surprise that Chinese companies want to take a share of it. The Chinese government's desire to build better bilateral relations has resulted in dam projects such as the Coca Codo Sinclair project in Ecuador," she said. Patricia Adams, executive director of Probe International, a Canadian non-governmental organisation, said China was expanding its dam-building into Latin America partly for geopolitical reasons. For example, mainland state-owned firms had replaced those from Taiwan to build three dams in Honduras, which recognised the island, Adams said. Chinese state institutions were involved in the hydro-sector planning of Ecuador, said Paulina Garzon, international financial co-ordinator of the Centre for Economic and Social Rights, an Ecuadorian non-governmental organisation. Read on...






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