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by Staff Writers Sao Paulo (AFP) Oct 12, 2012 Fishermen and indigenous people occupying a disputed dam in Brazil's Amazon are due to argue before a federal judge Monday their claim that the project harms their way of life, official media reported. Agencia Brasil said Judge Marcelo Honorato summoned representatives of the Norte Energia consortium in charge of the Belo Monte Dam and of the more than 150 fishermen and natives occupying the dam's Pimental construction site since Monday. Officials from the National Indian Foundation, the government agency dealing with indigenous peoples, are set to attend the conciliation meeting at the site, along with Para state public defenders to provide legal assistance. But Honorato served notice that the meeting would occur only if the activists end their occupation of Pimental, one of the dam's five construction sites, Agencia Brasil said. Protesters accuse Norte Energia of backtracking on accords signed in June when 150 indigenous people occupied the Pimental area for three weeks. The natives want their lands demarcated and non-indigenous people removed from them, as well as a better health care system and access to drinking water. Indigenous groups fear the dam across the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon, will harm their way of life while environmentalists have warned of deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and irreparable damage to the ecosystem. Expected to produce 11,000 megawatts of electricity, the dam would be the third biggest in the world, after China's Three Gorges facility and Brazil's Itaipu Dam in the south. It is one of several hydroelectric projects billed by Brazil as providing clean energy for a fast-growing economy. The dam is, however, expected to flood an area of 500 square kilometers (200 square miles) along the Xingu and displace 16,000 people, according to the government, although some NGOs put the number at 40,000 displaced. The federal government plans to invest a total of $1.2 billion to assist the displaced by the time the dam is completed in 2019.
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