Qualla: Jirau Dam

Jirau Dam: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. On 21 June 2016, workers at the Jirau Dam pulled the body of Nilce de Souza Magalhães from the reservoir. Known as Nicinha, she had been missing since January. Her hands and feet were bound with rope, tied to a rock, her body found 400 meters from where she had lived before the dam's construction displaced her. The daughter of rubber tappers from Acre, Nicinha had spent years denouncing human rights violations by the consortium that built the dam. Her murder is not incidental to the story of Jirau — it is the story of Jirau, condensed into a single life and a single act of violence.

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Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jirau Dam: Engineering on a Continental Scale

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The Jirau Dam is a 1,100-meter-long structure on the Madeira River in Rondônia, combining an 800-meter arched embankment with concrete sections for its power station and spillway. The embankment stands 63 meters tall with an asphalt core — 17,000 cubic meters of asphalt within 2 ...

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Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jirau Dam: The Price Tag and the Politics

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anderson Vellloso, CC BY-SA 4.0. Jirau is one half of a twin project. Together with the 3,580 MW Santo Antônio Dam at Porto Velho, it forms the core of the Madeira River hydroelectric complex — a planned four-dam system that would eventually extend to the Brazilian-Bolivian border and into Bolivia itself. The es...

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Image: Anderson Vellloso | CC BY-SA 4.0

Jirau Dam: Riots, Strikes, and Fire

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anderson Vellloso, CC BY-SA 4.0. Construction did not proceed smoothly. On 18 March 2011, workers rioted — setting fire to buses and destroying portions of the worker housing. Low wages and the behavior of security officials were blamed. National security forces had to be dispatched, and construction halted. In ...

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Image: Anderson Vellloso | CC BY-SA 4.0

Jirau Dam: The People the Dam Displaced

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The Worldwatch Institute called the licensing process a dangerous precedent, warning that no project should fast-track approval for new dams in Amazonia or circumvent Brazil's environmental laws. The most persistent criticism was social. FUNAI, Brazil's indigenous protection foun...

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Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jirau Dam: Clean Energy, Dirty Legacy

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Because Jirau is a run-of-the-river project, it does not impound a traditional large reservoir, and it includes environmental remediation efforts. These features earned the plant registration under the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism — making Jirau the largest renewabl...

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Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0