In this Spanish-language blog post from the Fundacion Solon, 14 reasons to say no to mega-dams are listed:
1. Mega-dam reservoirs are one of the main causes of deforestation and destruction of the habitat of villages, animals and plants. Bala and Chepete will deforest more than 80,000 hectares of Amazonian forest.
2. Mega-dams cause great flooding. Chepete will create the fourth lake and Rositas the fifth largest lake in Bolivia.
3. Mega-dams displace thousands of families and flood territory of indigenous nations and peoples.
4. Mega-dams are not guaranteed by consulting the prior, free, informed and good faith consent of indigenous peoples and affected populations.
5. Mega-dams impede the free movement of vessels, fish and cause loss of water volume downstream, reduce the number of native fish and have negative effects on the fertility of soils and wetlands.
6. Mega-dams increase the concentration of toxic chemical components such as mercury in rivers and reservoirs.
7. Mitigation measures for the serious social and environmental impacts of mega-dams generally fail.
8. Mega-dams are not renewable energy and contribute to climate change with large emissions of methane gas that are produced by the decomposition of underwater vegetation.
9. Mega-dams end up generating much less energy than initially estimated, and end up costing much more than budgeted.
10. Mega-dams constitute a great source of external indebtedness. If the Chepete, El Bala and Rositas dams are made, Bolivia's external debt will be multiplied by two.
11. The construction of mega-dams has been a source of great corruption in many parts of the world.
12. Currently there are less harmful and more profitable alternative sources of electricity generation such as solar, wind and small hydroelectric power.
13. Debt to build mega-dams without having an insured export market is killing the future of Bolivia.
14. Mega-dams are an obsolete development model of the last century. The future is not the export of electricity over thousands of kilometers but the local production, storage and consumption of renewable energy.