Abstract

BRITES, Walter  and  CATULLO, Maria Rosa. Dams and socio-urban transformation: A comparative analysis of the hydroelectric projects of Salto Grande and Yacyretá. CIDADES [online]. 2016, n.32, pp.50-67. ISSN 2182-3030.  https://doi.org/10.15847/citiesterritories.dec2016.art04.

The construction of great hydroelectric projects, generates a series of consequences of various nature (demographic, ecological, social, cultural) and one of them, is the relocation of urban population. In this paper we focus on the processes of relocations generated by the construction of the hydroelectric dams of Salto Grande (Argentina-Uruguay) and Yacyretá (Paraguay-Argentina),. and examineAnalyzing specifically the change generated on the cities of Nueva Federación and Posadas (Argentina) and Encarnación (Paraguay). Salto Grande dam created a lake of 30,000 hectares being corresponding to almost 70% of the old Federación city flooded and moved to the city of Nueva Federación, built to up at a distance of 5 km from the original site. In the case of the cities of Posadas-Encarnación, the approach trywe look, from another perspective, the study ofat the relocations, analyzing how the displaced population suffersundergoes the effects of displacement to be accompanied by following the processes of socio-spatial segregation. We argue that can not understand the processes that occur in sets of population relocated cannot be understood from an insular approach, so it is necessary to circumscribe place the case inside the broader context of the social and urban transformation generated by the additional complementary works of these projects.

Keywords : Hydroelectric dams; urban change; social effects; resettlement; Salto Grande; Yacyretá.