business

Why this pipe, in a hydroelectric project?

photos by Doug Allen, text by Eric Jackson

Pursuant to a 1998 National Environmental Authority (ANAM) permit that the authority's current management is slow to release, a company called Hidroelectrico San Carlos SA is building a dam, sluiceway, water retention ponds and tanks and an apparent generating station on the Rio Teta and a small tributary stream near Guayabito in San Carlos district.

There is a big pipe, not shown here,  from the water retention tank to what looks like it will be a generating station. But that pipe is made up of used and in places patched tubing, and what's more the line is broken with several gaps where the earth has moved or settled under or around poorly laid foundations. It's approval for use would be a San Carlos municipal inspector's call, but the poor workmanship is easy to spot and the large pipe as currently installed is clearly unusable.

But what about the smaller pipe shown above? That doesn't go to the power station.

And therein may be the real story of this project --- whether or not there is actually any electric generation to be done here, one business venture that this dam is definitely intended to support is the Shahani brothers' Vista Mar golf course and residential community that's now under construction. Which is most likely what the pipe shown above is all about.

Also cracked and patched due to improperly laid foundations is the project's sluiceway, shown below.

So if these problems catch the non-specialized eye, are there or will there be others with the two earthen dams now under construction, and if so, will they present public safety issues?

And what will be this project's effect on an area with a declining water table, a surfing beach that depends on a sandbar created by the Rio Teta, and the ecosystems along the river?

The Panama News still has more questions than answers.

 

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San Carlos dam may be only nominally hydroelectric
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