Harnessing the Parana

Brazil's many and mighty rivers offer a wealth of power-producing capacity, but less than 10% of the country's hydroelectric potential is utilized. Even major cities suffer from a severe kilowatt lag. In Rio de Janeiro, lights often flicker--and sometimes die--and Saeo Paulo's massive industrial complexes are perennially pestered by a shortage of juice. Prospects are brighter: a giant project abuilding in south-central Brazil will help illuminate some of the country's dark corners and produce a stream of electricity for its cities.

The Parana, third biggest river in South America after the Amazon and the Orinoco, is being harnessed by two dams costing an estimated $700 million. The first power plant to hum will be at Jupia, where next June three generators will go into action. After that, others will be added every year until, by 1972, 14 are producing 100,000 kw. each. Thirty-four miles upstream, work has begun on the Ilha Solteira Dam, whose 20 turbines will produce 160,000 kw. apiece when they become fully operative in 1979.

The 4.6 million-kw. Urubupunga* project will increase the nation's power production in twelve years to 12 million kw. This is hardly startling by the standards of developed nations, but much of Brazil's huge area (3,290,000 square miles) will be affected. Most directly helped will be Saeo Paulo, Brasilia and Rio, which now share power from the Cubatao and Furnas dams. When Urubupunga turns on, a grid will assure an even flow of electricity from the three complexes.

Taming Mato Grosso. Equally important, Urubupunga, like Brasilia before it, will be a force in shifting the center of gravity westward into the nation's vast undeveloped sectors. Beyond the flatlands surrounding the Parana River is the wild frontier of Mato Grosso, where cattlemen, rubber gatherers, construction men and Indians fight the jungle and sometimes each other. While the initial lure was gold, the area has been found rich in iron, manganese and limestone, not to mention fertile grazing pastures. The trouble is transportation, which is nearly nonexistent.

The Urubupunga project, besides providing rural electricity, will include ship and barge locks, making the Parana navigable and giving the interior an outlet to the sea at Rio de la Plata. Moreover, the northernmost tributaries of theParana nearly touch the southern tributaries of the Amazon. Engineers suggest that a canal might eventually join the rivers so that a vessel could enter South America at the mouth of the Amazon, do business along the interior route, and exit at Buenos Aires.

Revenue & Relief. Recently, at a ceremony on the Jupia dam site, Brazilian President Arthur da Costa e Silva (TIME cover, April 21) was presented with a loan of $34 million from the Inter-American Development Bank. But 70% of the Urubupunga project was home financed. In fact, a reason for building two dams instead of one was to keep finances within reach: getting Jupia into production fast will relieve the power shortage even while it produces revenue to build the second dam.

*A Tupi Indian word meaning vulture offal, which for years has been the name of a nearby stretch of rapids on the Parana.

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