Privy Council to rule on Belize dam

The Privy Council in London will hear an environmental case for the first time in its history this week as campaigners seek to stop a dam project in central America which, they say, threatens rare wildlife and their habitats.

At a public hearing on Wednesday, law lords will decide whether or not to grant an injunction halting construction of the multi-million pound Chalillo dam in Belize. The Privy Council is the highest court of appeal for Belize and several other Caribbean nations.

In an unprecedented move last month, the Belizean government rushed through a new law stating that any future ruling against the dam by any court will be invalid. Challilo will be built and operated by a Canadian power company, Fortis.

Environmental campaigner Godsman Ellis said the legislation took the final say over the dam away from the Belizean people. "This law violates our constitution," he said.

According to the Belizean government, the dam will provide much-needed electricity for the country. But local environmental groups say information supplied by researchers from London's Natural History Museum was dismissed by Amec, the UK construction conglomerate hired by Fortis to produce data for the environmental impact assessment.

Fortis says the dam will be built on granite bedrock, but tests by the Natural History Museum researchers showed the rock is in fact sandstone, heightening fears that the dam will be unsafe. The project will also flood 1,000 hectares of rain forest, threatening some of Latin America's rarest wildlife, including the national animal, the Baird's tapir, jaguar cats and the unique scarlet macaws.

Belize's government has refused to cancel the project, even though international hydrology experts say that the dam will not produce the amount of electricity the government and Fortis claim.