There can be only one opinion – this project is impossible. Such conclusion was reached by the participants of the round table “Evenki Hydropower Station: to be or not to be…” that was held November, 27, in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.

The event was organized by the Russian Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East together with the Public Chamber.

Considering wide public response drawn by the Evenki Hydropower project representatives of the federal and Krasnoyarsk Krai’s public authorities, Russian and foreign experts, representatives of NGOs, scientific community and the indigenous peoples of Evenkia were invited.

As it was mentioned during the round table discussion the project of the Evenki Hydropower Station is not a new one, it’s a kind of giant project typical for Soviet times. During the active mass media campaign regarding the development of Lower Priangarye the question of the Evenki (formerly known as Turukhanskaya) Hydropower Station arose by itself. However, the participants of the meeting think it will bring nothing but numerous problems and destruction of the whole natural complex. Even the electric supply of the Evenki settlements is not provided for by the Hydropower Project.

Mikhail Kreindlin, a representative of Greenpeace Russia, informed that the project of building the hugest hydropower station in the world was created in the Leningrad “Lenhydroproject” institute and was widely discussed in 1986-1989. The Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, famous scientists, ecologists and the public strongly opposed the project. The damage caused by the hydropower construction was proved to be irreplaceable and disastrous to all the Yenisei North. The Evenki Hydropower project is almost equal to the Turukhanskaya one. The facts its position is ten kilometers different and its expected power is reduced don’t change anything. The Lower Tunguska, environment, nature and forests – it’s all the same. However, the “Rushydro” company has concealed the previous negative conclusion; it only mentioned that experts proposed certain changes to the project though generally the project is appreciated positively. This proves the company intentionally misrepresents and conceals the information about the hydropower plant construction and its adverse effects on the population in order to advance the project at any cost.

Marina Starovertseva, vice-chairman of the District Council of the Krasnoyarsk Krai’s Evenki municipal district, explained what the hydropower construction can bring to the population of Evenkia: destruction of the key traditional nature use territories; flood of the settlements including Tura, the capital of Evenkia; impossibility of  navigation of the Lower Tunguska, which means a destruction of the transport system; huge influx of strange population that is well-known for its destructive influence on the indigenous peoples’ life.   According to the poll conducted by the Evenki deputies in 2009 85% of the population strongly oppose the construction of the hydropower station.

The Congress of the Evenks of Russia held in Yakutia definitely spoke against that project. In April, 2009, the Congress of the Indigenous Small-numbered Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East took place in Moscow. Delegates addressed the government to exclude the Evenki Hydropower Station from the general layout of the hydropower objects till 2020.

Pavel Sulyandziga, the RAIPON 1st vice-president, reminded the participants of the round table that the Association had been preparing a concurrent report for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination about the situation with the indigenous peoples of the North in Russia. As a result in October 2009 the UN Committee expressed its concern about the influence on the indigenous peoples caused by the recent changes in Russian legislation regarding the use of lands, fishery resources and hunting by the indigenous peoples and the consequences of pipelines and hydropower stations construction. The Committee recommended the government to give up the construction of the Evenki Hydropower Station as well as the construction of other large-scale projects that threaten the traditional lifestyle of the indigenous peoples.

Mark Denisov, the Krasnoyarsk Krai’s ombudsman, noted that the initiators of this construction can hardly imagine its consequences for the Evenki people. Unlike other population indigenous peoples don’t migrate following profits and when their environment is destroyed the people is eliminated either.

Public organizations consider the main motive of the project’s initiators is its enormous price. The inevitable rise in the cost of construction under the pretence of protection against the ecological adverse effects of the dam construction or under the pretence of preserving the Evenki culture would only make the construction supporters happy. Huge construction means huge money.

According to the norms currently in use the ecologists estimate the aggregate damage to biological resources in the area of the Evenki reservoir flood would be at least 4.394.114.779.854,0 rub. The construction would flood about 1 million hectares of the unique deciduous forests and pastures traditionally used by the Evenks. It would also flood a chamber that contains the radioactive brine left as a result of at least one of the underground nuclear explosions fired in the Lower Tunguska’s floodplain in 1970s.

The participants of the round table unanimously consider the hydropower project ecologically dangerous and socially unfounded. In their joint statement they demanded not to allow the construction of the hydropower station on the Lower Tunguska River and that the “Rushydro” should cease all the development of the project documentation.