Mollejon Dam

Fantastic setting amind the mountains but the fact that there was so little water flowing down the river sort of surprised me though perhaps it should not have.  I say this because it is evident looking at the main river that we came along by the road up to San Ignacio (especially where we crossed the river) that flows are low.  Now this is perhaps due to this being the drier season or it could be due to alterations to the flows.  The matter of whether or not to develop hydropower in relatively pristine environments brings into sharp focus the challenges facing developing countries.  How much do you sacrifice of the environment in order to improve social conditions (and if indeed it does improve social conditions?).  Hydropower in Belize has with the building of the Challilo Dam been the subject of much contention.

Hydropower projects are usually designed on the basis of past flow records and the assumption that the climate is stable.  The one thing we have come to realise with climate change is that we can n o longer use the past records as a guide to the future.  So the question becomes; what strategies in your design and evaluation you use to incorporate CC into the development?

Posted via email from thedrain's posterous

Arrive in San Ignacio

We had a long day in the car. We traveled three hours to San Ignacio
and arrived at Cahel Pech Resort to drop off our luggage and get back
in the vehicles to go to the Mollejon dam and hydroelectric plant.
Belize typically bought electricity from Mexico but that can
frequently be expensive, especially seasonally. Damming the rivers has
been a recent occurrence in Belize and this source of electricity
makes Belize self-reliant. The dam itself is smaller than what I’m
used to seeing, but combined with a couple of other hydro-power plants
(one more we’ll see tomorrow), they seem to producing what they need.

The Cahel Pech Resort is sweet, has a lovely view and has a pool. But
again, very poor internet access. So while the Belize government is
working towards finding good sustainable sources of cleanly generated
electricity, I suggest they look into reliable network access for the
nation. Not so much for tourist and research parties to check their
email or upload their data, but for school children to be able to
enjoy the riches of the information found on the internets.

Posted via email from Meg's Scrap Paper