RE:RE:UN's official paper The Working Group was informed by State authorities that the school built by Norte Energia was a temporary container inadequate for the Altamira climate. Likewise, riverine people had been resettled to new housing located far from the river (their main source of livelihood) with no infrastructure. In both cases, there appeared to have been no consultation with the people prior to the conception of the mitigation projects.
Norte Energia appeared not to have specific mechanisms in place to exercise human rights due diligence, allowing human rights risks to be identified and addressed. In light of information received about other development projects, Norte Energia’s approach appears to be quite representative of the way mitigation measures are often approached by companies in Brazil.
The Working Group visited the Independte II neighbourhood of Altamira, a poor residential area of some 400 houses. The area will be flooded once the dam reservoir is filled and residents were very anxious about what would happen to them. They said that they had received no information nor had they been consulted on their resettlement and residents were concerned that the dam would flood their houses and that they would have nowhere to go. As a result of advocacy by civil society organizations on behalf of the community, IBAMA came to assess the situation which resulted in the inclusion of a new requirement in the licence agreement, requesting Norte Energia to provide alternative housing for the people living in the Independent II neighbourhood before October 2016. Residents were worried that this requirement would not be complied with and they did not know about relocation plans.