The Dam Site of the Columbia River Forest Reserve
The Supreme Court upheld the Prime Minister's concession agreement in 2010 to allow the builders of Hydro Maya to build a second dam inside of the Columbia River Forest Reserve. CRC believes that the reserve should be protected, not made into foreign developers' private property as happened in with the Hydro Maya dam.
The area that is threatened by the development is the source of our district's fresh water, and is covered by rain forest containing many rare and even endemic species, and at least 14 Mayan sites. We are pledged to help protect it from irresponsible development.
We have been educating on the pros and cons of dams at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. For one of our projects, Toledo Community College's 3A Social Studies class wrote, sang, and danced the "Damn the Dam" video in the Columbia River just upstream from the CRC.
Ya'xché Conservation Trust, which co-manages the reserve, has been sponsoring the running of the video as a commercial on the local channel. This video has a "homemade" look, but most commercials on Belizean television do.
Cornelia and Leticia during filming
We have been working on this project for two years (beginning in 2010), along with other community organizations, doing TV and radio talk shows, passing petitions, and writing articles. All of the Mayan villages in Toledo are built alongside rivers, which are the life blood of the communities. Swimming and washing in the rivers is a part of traditional Mayan life.
Stopping up free flowing rivers damages the environment and local culture! Support alternative energy solutions that don't come with a huge price tag, to be paid by future generations.
