MIT Bank

A call to the regional Office of the World Bank to clarify whether statements made to a domestic environment by the Economist of the entity, Pablo Fanjnzylver, in that it would support the dams in Aysen, were either personal or institutional, made this morning the Executive Secretary of the Patagonia Defense Council, Rodrigo Patricio. The directors of the organization that is leading a fierce battle against the eventual construction of more than 8 dams in Patagonia (summand of HidroAysen to the energy Austral, among others) and a laying electric partner of 2,300 kilometers of extension, expressed that in the event that this person declarations reflect a new official policy of the international respect of mega damsparticularly in a territory of global interest such as Patagonia, it is necessary for the institution to clarify its position against the report of the World Commission on dams that was funded by the World Bank itself and which shows that where you have installed these in anything they have contributed to the development of regions and territories and, on the contrary, have worsened environmental conditions, the landscape and the quality of life of the communities. He added that in moments in which the national and global economy through the worst crisis of the century, it would be unusual that the World Bank will promote initiatives of mega dams that threaten the development of low-impact renewable-generating sustainable employment, to externalize their costs to society, destroy the natural resource base and that they tend to consolidate the monopolistic economic visions that justly took us to the current situation..