NEWS October 21st 2003

**ACTION**

DAM

Plans for a devastating dam in the Macal River Valley in Belize are moving ahead. A little over a year after environmentalists managed to block construction, Fortis, Inc., of Canada has contracted a Chinese construction company to begin building.
Non-governmental organizations working to prevent construction of the Chalillo Dam are now increasing pressure on Fortis by readying another legal challenge. They are also pressing AMEC, the giant engineering company brokering the deal between Fortis and the Chinese builder, to end its involvement in the project.

UK-based AMEC presents itself as 'green'; keeping a low profile about its support for the nuclear industry, and emphasising its support for wind energy. AMEC and British Energy's joint project to build the world's largest wind farm, for example, has drawn significant media attention. The facts that AMEC serves the nuclear industry and fuels climate change through its support for the oil and gas industry, its push for huge airport and road building schemes, etc are conveniently underexposed. Both British Energy (UK's largest nuclear generator) and British Nuclear Fuels are among AMEC's clients, as are the UK Ministry of Defence and British Aerospace.

AMEC conducted what it said was an independent environmental assessment of the dam. Environmentalists consider the study to be flawed. The dam would flood the upper Macal River Valley, erasing 57 square kilometers of the last intact rainforest in northern Central America. It would destroy a habitat for rare jaguars, tapirs, crocodiles and a subspecies of the scarlet macaw, of which only 1,000 remain in the wild, 200 of them in Belize.

CONTACTS:

SIGN PETITION TO STOP FORTIS: http://petition.stopfortis.org

TELL AMEC WHAT YOU THINK:

AMEC Plc

Headquarters and registered office: AMEC London details & CEO:
Sandiway House Peter Mason
Hartford Chief Executive
AMEC Plc
Northwich, Cheshire 65, Carter Lane
CW8 2YA London
EC 4V 5HF
United Kingdom
Tel: 01606 883885
Tel: +44 (0)20 7574 3999 / 75395800 Fax: +44 (0)20 7574 3199
Fax: 01606 883996 Website: www.amec.com www.amec.co.uk
Email: AmecLondon@amec.com