Madeira River

A river about to change

The picture shows a woman fishing by the Madeira river, near Porto Velho, the capital of the state of Rondonia. The fisherwoman is actually my mother. We were back to our birthplace for vacation in July.

The Madeira river comes from the Andes mountains in Bolivia and makes its way through the forest down to the Amazonas. The part of the river seen in the photograph will soon change completely. A lake will form when the Madeira River hydroelectric power plant be created, which is expected to happen within the next years.

There is currently plenty of debate in Rondonia about the social, environmental and economic impacts of the two power plants to be built in the Madeira. The other one is the Jirau power plant, about a hundred kilometers west of Porto Velho.

Be it as it will, financial speculation thrives in the city. New money is coming in. Real estate prices are booming. New buildings a re under construction throughout the city and cement is already hard to find.

The Madeira river was portrayed in the famous Brazilian novel “Mad Maria”, by writer Márcio de Souza. It is about the construction of the Madeira-Mamore railroad in the early 20th century. A TV series was later filmed based on the novel.

The Madeira-Mamore railroad brought a short-lived economic boom to the region by the time of its construction. But it soon proved to be a complete social and economic fiasco. Thousands of Indians and workers died. The former were killed by the “civilized” white men. The latter fell victims of malaria fever and other tropical diseases combined with dreadful working conditions in the jungle.

Will the power plants and the money they bring give Rondonia a better fate this time? What stories will be written about them a hundred years from now? We can only speculate.