Electricity supply for Brazil

There comes a moment in life when one has to confront so many different problems that one doesn’t quite know where to start. The result is often that one begins by tackling a minor chore such as putting your bedside table drawer in order.

We have been reading during the past few months about the development of a project which will supply electricity to Brazil and which involves construction of extensive distribution systems. We don’t have many details about this project and it could indeed be an excellent one; we certainly hope so! However, we feel that it is of low priority, something like your bedside table drawer, and that it raises certain questions which could diminish its validity as a project.

I have no intention of joining the group of critics of the “I told you so” ilk who must now be gloating over the news of the negative effects El Niño will have on Venezuela’s hydroelectric generation capacity. Evidently, things like El Niño must completely alter any bases on which the project was developed, but since I consider the former to be an external and fortuitous event, I also feel it is an extremely poor foundation for criticism.

I must admit that my first reaction upon hearing about the project was sheer envy. This sentiment basically comes from my conviction that if we are to invest in transmission lines, the Island of Margarita for one, is probably more deserving than Brazil. I simply don’t understand how and why an important pole of development for the country such as Margarita is being forced into more expensive generation systems such as, for example, the time-worn idea of a gas pipeline from the mainline to the island, while we are simultaneously developing mega-projects in order to export power to Brazil.

You don’t have to be an expert in environmental affairs to suspect that a 217 Km. suspended power line which must be supported by 512 towers, each of them 36 meters high, spread out through environmentally sensitive areas such as the Canaima National Park, the Imataca Forest Reserve and the Southern Protection Zone of the State of Bolívar, must have serious implications. It is not enough to assert that there will be special care taken to camouflage the towers in order to reduce contrast with the horizon.

I propose that we study the possibility of a swap. A new power distribution system for Margarita, via suspended lines and submarine cables, in exchange for a gas pipeline (underground) to Brazil. The latter can then build it’s own power plants wherever and whenever it sees fit.

I may be accused of being Brazil’s enemy; I certainly am not! Venezuela has serious border problems for which it has not been able to develop a coherent policy. A power line aimed at developing an area in which we still do not have effective representation seems more like a humanitarian aid shipment of medicine, blankets and food parachuted into unknown neighboring foreign territory, thereby strengthening the latter’s hand without ensuring that our own side of the border is equally populated, developed and supplied.

How can a simple columnist dare comment on matters completely outside his direct scope of expertise? I believe the answer lies in the fact that it is not necessary to have technical know-how when the objective is to try to put projects into social perspective in such a way as to be able to analyze their priority for the country. We obtain proof on a daily basis that the country lacks a central entity who’s responsibility is the adequate allocation of priorities to projects in the pipeline. In this sense, it could be that the Brazilian project is valid, but would it not behoove us to analyze whether it is better and more important than others? A citizen that doesn’t raise questions is a citizen that will eventually end up with his photograph pasted on identity cards (cédulas) which would have cost us US$ 500 million.

One last comment. Frequent mention is made about an environmental impact study undertaken by a “specialized firm”. In cases such as the above, of such environmental importance for future generations, I would probably wish to know that the studies were entrusted to serious professionals with names and surnames rather than to an anonymous company. If we had the backup of names, cédula and telephone numbers and addresses, we could conceivably exact accountability from them; if anything, for the honor or shame of their descendants.

By the way, forty years ago, this responsibility would have been assumed by politicians personally. They would not be hiding behind the skirts of a political organization. If dictatorship in any way is superior to democracy it is because, at least in our country, dictators are held historically and directly more responsible for both good and bad; much more so than today’s executives of Political Party, C.A.