One can only imagine the desperation of the warning given to residents of the region in August 1982: leave your properties because the waters will flood your lands to form the Itaipu Binacional reservoir. The somewhat threatening warning was reproduced in an article in the newspaper Our Time, in issue no. 51.
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The report was written by journalist Juvêncio Mazzarollo, illustrated with his photographs. The title was “Itaipu’s Last Warning”, with the provocative and disturbing reinforcement of the call, which stated: “Everyone get out because the flood is really coming”.
The report critically stated that the Itaipu lake would submerge a rich and beautiful area of 1350 square kilometers, 780 of which are in Brazil and 570 in Paraguay. The newspaper reproduced the public statement issued by the company, which said:
– Attention, dispossessed people who still live in the reservoir area. At the end of this year, the waters of the Paraná River will begin to rise to form the Itaipu Lake. In two weeks, a vast region will be completely covered by water.
People, families, stories, lives were reduced to the term “dispossessed”. The newspaper noted what it considered the threatening tone of the note, “capable of even causing panic”, contextualizing that there were still residents who did not believe in the “fantastic violence”, it wrote.
“Torn from the earth”
O Our Time He considered that, at the time, neither country demanded the electrical power that would be produced by Itaipu. And he criticized, in the midst of the military regime, riddled with censorship, persecution and silencing, projects imposed from above, with the binational company.
The weekly argued that, “from the lands that will be covered and rendered useless, the thousands of farmers violently torn from the soil they cultivated also produced millions of unmeasured energy kilowatts, but in food,” he stressed. The region, he said, had the most fertile land in the world.
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Itaipu Binacional caused irreparable damage to the neighboring population, fauna and flora, and today they are dressing up as false moralists, fencing off the area bordering the lake, preventing the passage of the population that lost its habitat and today they are considered invaders by the destroyers, who took over the land, set their prices and gave the message: Get out, because we are going to flood everything. It is pitiful.
Lie, this publication is a lie, they paid very well for the value of the land and improvements in addition to letting everything that was movable be taken, there was a warning yes but they gave enough time for everyone to relocate, I say this because I witnessed my father being compensated and never complained, this is leftist news.
I am 58 years old and I am from the south of Santa Catarina. I found out about the dam when it was still being built. At that time, inflation was high and when the settlers received the agreed amount, it was already worth much less. I say this because I have relatives in Santa Tezerinha, very close to Fos do Iguaçu. They say that the plant will produce viable energy for 100 years. They are counting the years. Now they say that it will only take 60 years. Just look at the feelings of the people who were practically expelled from their homes!
My father was compensated and never complained because he managed to move to another municipality. Regarding the comment speaking badly of the left, it is normal in a country where the right only talks shit.
Very leftist text... But make your protest, live without electricity. The red iPhone people throwing their tantrums...
Creating a fight about left and right in a post that reproduces text from 42 years ago is a big waste of time, honestly…
I'm from the time when the plant started. I had relatives who were expropriated in Santa Helena. They received good compensation but spent all the money for nothing and didn't find a new place. Today they live wearing red caps and invading other people's lands and criticizing the right wing. Bunch of bums.
Progress has arrived. Families have been compensated. Nature has reorganized itself. Life goes on. I am proud of our rich Paraná.