Court suspends Chile dam works

20 June 2011 Last updated at 23:51 GMT The project has provoked protests from different sectors of society A court in Chile has ordered the suspension of a multi-billion-dollar dam project in the south of the country, following objections by legislators and environmentalists.

The five dams are to be built on two rivers in the sparsely-populated Aysen area of Chilean Patagonia.

The project was approved in May, after heavy backing from President Sebastian Pinera.

But the court has now ruled it needs to review the approval process.

It is not clear how long the court will take to decide on the matter.

The project has sparked a number of protests, some of which have seen violent clashes between demonstrators and the security forces.

The government says the dams are needed to meet the country's increasing demand for electricity.

But environmentalists say they will damage the area's fragile ecology and its tourist potential.

They also say the energy produced will be used mainly for the country's mining industry.

Rugged beauty The river Baker is one of two rivers that will be dammed if the project goes ahead

The five dams will be built on two fast flowing rivers that run into the Pacific - two on the river Baker, and three on the river Pascua.

They drain lakes in a region that is famous for its rugged beauty - a landscape of glaciers, ice-fields, mountains and fjords.

The dam project, which is a joint venture between a Chilean company and a Spanish-owed one, will cost some $3bn (?1.85bn) and is designed to generate 2,750MW of power.

The company, HidroAysen, says the project "represents a cost-effective, sustainable, reliable, and ecologically viable source of energy".

It says it involves flooding nearly 60 sq km (23 sq miles) of land, but will provide 4,000 jobs at its peak.

But other potential sticking points lie ahead for the company.

Correspondents say one of these could be approval to build the more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) of power lines needed to carry the electricity generated from the dams to the capital, Santiago.

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Chile volcano travel chaos easing

11 June 2011 Last updated at 17:25 GMT Police officers watch the steaming waters of the Nilahue river Flights in and out of major airports in Argentina and Uruguay are starting to return to normal, following two days of disruption caused by a vast cloud of ash from an erupting Chilean volcano.

Argentina's two most important airports, both in Buenos Aires, re-opened late on Friday.

The main airport in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, followed later.

Meanwhile Qantas airline has cancelled a number of flights between Australia and New Zealand because of the ash.

Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano range began erupting a week ago.

Strong winds in the high atmosphere have now carried fine ash particles as far as Tasmania, some 10,000km (6,200 miles) west of the volcano, which is on a similar latitude.

Ski season fears

Most flights in and out of Montevideo's Carrasco international airport were running normally on Saturday.

And the airport authorities in Buenos Aires say they hope flight schedules will be back to normal by Monday.

However, several other airports in Argentina - mainly in Patagonia - remain closed, raising fears for the region's ski season, at the start of the southern winter.

By Friday, workers in the Patagonian resort town of Bariloche had filled 600 lorries with ash that had fallen on the local airport's main runway.

Forced evacuation

Meanwhile, just across the border from Bariloche, in Chile, the volcano continues to erupt.

On Friday, government scientists monitoring the volcano reported seismic activity there had decreased slightly since the day before.

A nearby river, Nilahue, which runs off the slopes of the volcano, has broken its banks, being clogged by ash sediment.

Its waters are steaming, having in places been heated by volcanic material to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

The authorities have repeated warnings that recent heavy rains could cause landslides of volcanic debris.

Most of the small communities in this area have already been evacuated.

But on Friday, the authorities were putting together a specialist police squad to evacuate the last 14 people in the exclusion area, against the residents' will.

This is the first serious eruption of the volcano chain since 1960, when the area was hit by a massive earthquake.

Chile is one of the most volcanic countries on Earth. There are more than 3,000 volcanoes dotted along its length, and around 80 of them are active.

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