With protests on December 6 and 8, the Austrian civil society is mounting pressure on the Andritz AG Company to desist from supplying turbines to the mega-hydroelectric of Belo Monte in the Brazilian state of Pará, in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.

 

Andritz AG intends to participate in the European consortium Vohts-Alstom-Andritz that would supply the majority of the turbines of Belo Monte, planned to be the third biggest hydroelectric in the world.

 

The NGO Dreikönigsaktion organized a protest at the main office of Andritz in Vienna on December 6. The date coincided with the award ceremony of the Right Livelihood Awards, the alternative Nobel Prize, at Stockholm, one of which was awarded to the Austrian born bishop Erwin Kräutler of the Xingu prelacy. Kräutler has been a staunch opponent of the hydroelectric ever since its conception in the seventies.

 

The dam will flood one third of the city of Altamira, where bishop Kräutler lives, forcing an estimated 30.000 people out of their houses. The diversion of the river water to two artificial canals will dry out a stretch of 100 kilometres of the Big Bend of the Xingu river – famous for its natural beauty -, leaving many indigenous and riverine communities without means of survival.

 

 

The protest on December 6 was followed by a vigil and protest march on the evening of the 8^th. Both were covered by the Austrian media. (See a series of photos of the protest and a television interview broadcast nationally.)

 

The protest followed a series of meetings with leaders of the Brazilian NGO Movimento de Atingidos por Barragens, the Movement of People Affected by Dams, that were extensively covered by the Austrian media.

 

Apparently Andritz felt some pressure because of the protest and the media publicity, so the CEO (and 30% shareholder) asked the archbishop of Vienna Cardenal Schönborn for a meeting. During that meeting Belo Monte as such as well as the involvement of Andritz in Belo Monte was discussed. It was agreed that further meetings on an effective CSR policy for Andritz will take place.

 

The civil society organization in Austria already announced that they will continue pressuring Andritz over Belo Monte.