Actioncamp Foz da Tua (Portugal)

We are reach­ing the crit­i­cal stage to stop one of the biggest atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted in one of the most beau­ti­ful rivers in Por­tu­gal.

We are reach­ing the crit­i­cal stage to stop one of the biggest atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted in one of the most beau­ti­ful rivers in Por­tu­gal. This is a strug­gle span­ning sev­er­al years already, although all the effort made to pre­serve the Tua Riv­er Val­ley, it’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al wealth, has been con­tra­dict­ed by the polit­i­cal and eco­nom­i­cal forces orga­nized to expro­pri­ate us from a uni­ver­sal com­mon good.

Con­struc­tion work for the dam has already start­ed! The Tua riv­er val­ley is encom­passed with­in the Alto Douro Vin­hateiro Region – a World Her­itage Site that  cel­e­brat­ed 10 years of UNESCO clas­si­fi­ca­tion last Decem­ber – and is now under the threat of being com­plete­ly destroyed. We must act. We must work togeth­er to pre­serve a Her­itage that is all of ours.

The build­ing of the Tua val­ley dam is part of the Nation­al Dam Plan, an ener­gy strat­e­gy cre­at­ed by the last gov­ern­ment propos­ing build­ing 10 news dams of high hydro­elec­tric poten­tial. Most civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions protest­ed against this, since it defines the biggest envi­ron­men­tal assault being com­mit­ted in the coun­try. In spite of all the effort invest­ed by these orga­ni­za­tions, the eco­nom­ic inter­ests that dri­ve the com­pa­nies involved have over­come all the legal chal­lenges set in their course.

We need all the help we can get to stop the Foz-Tua dam. So then we make an Open Call for a wide mobi­liza­tion of peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions to pro­tect and val­orize the World Her­itage and the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment of the Peo­ple.

The 14 of March cel­e­brates the Inter­na­tion­al Day of Action for Rivers. The rivers Tua, Sabor, Tâmega and all the threat­ened rivers must not be for­got­ten. We want to mark this date with an event where our voice will be heard. From the 10 to the 18 of March 2012 we will orga­nize a camp for the preser­va­tion of the Tua Val­ley and the pub­lic cen­sor­ship of the pro­po­nents of this dead­ly project.

This camp seeks to bend over this his­tor­i­cal moment for the region, when it’s on the brink of loos­ing the poten­tial for ground­ed devel­op­ment, and share the real­i­ty and cul­ture of a com­mu­ni­ty liv­ing in com­mu­nion with the riv­er val­ley for so long. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly the camp will be a place for net­work­ing, skill shar­ing and debat­ing envi­ron­men­tal, social and polit­i­cal ideas and con­cerns. It will also be a plat­form for protest, along­side the peo­ple and places most direct­ly affect­ed, to call for the imme­di­ate sus­pen­sion of the build­ing work. We can­not allow the con­struc­tion of this dam to con­demn the Tua Riv­er Val­ley region with loos­ing the World Her­itage sta­tus, the flood­ing of the 125 year old train line, so we walk against the build­ing of the EDP dam.

The Camp
 

The camp is being orga­nized by a con­stel­la­tion of vol­un­teers. We need all the help from asso­ci­a­tions and indi­vid­u­als that wish to par­tic­i­pate in the orga­ni­za­tion of this camp. This is a self-orga­nized camp and we ask for every­one to orga­nize actions and mate­ri­als for the Tua, against the dam. Sup­port could take sev­er­al forms:

  • broad­cast­ing cam­paign mate­r­i­al, invi­ta­tions, oth­er infor­ma­tion;
  • orga­niz­ing col­lec­tive trans­porta­tion to Trás-os-Montes;
  • col­lect­ing mate­ri­als such as tents/marquees/wooden structures/composting toilets/cooking equipment//paints;
  • get­ting involved in plan­ning meetings/proposing work­shops;
  • help­ing in the kitchen staff, search­ing for local food sup­pli­ers and and prepar­ing every­day meals
  • con­tribut­ing with dona­tions;

 
The impacts that the dam will cause are numer­ous and irre­versible. Here are some:

  • the drown­ing of a his­toric train line of local pop­u­la­tions, the only trans­port suit­able for peo­ple and goods in this region, that has also enor­mous tur­is­tic poten­tial and is there­fore instru­men­tal for eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment;
  • the for­feit­ing of a com­mon asset at a huge cap­i­tal cost with zero total gain;
  • the irre­versible destruc­tion of farm land, ecosys­tem bal­ance, nat­ur­al and human land­scapes, social, eco­log­i­cal and eco­nom­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty;
  • the loos­ing of the UNESCO World Her­itage Site clas­si­fi­ca­tion (see ICOMOS report on EDP dam impacts on UNESCO World Her­itage);
  • the unmea­sur­able loss of vis­i­tor flux and wealth gen­er­a­tion for the region;
  • the vio­la­tion of the Water Qual­i­ty Direc­tive, an action plan by the Euro­pean Union to ensure water pro­tec­tion.

 

All hands are wel­come! Let’s not allow the Tua Riv­er Val­ley to flood!
Actua Camp, 10 to 18 March 2012, Foz-Tua, Trás-os-Montes

Actua pelo Tua Art Con­test // Use Your Art // every art form accept­ed
Exhi­bi­tion // 14 March Foz-Tua // On going call out for entries

Con­tact: acampamentoactua@gmail.com

 
Info: http://acampamentoactua.wordpress.com/english/