(De Ware Tijd) PARIS – The Tapajai Hydro-project which Staatsolie wants to carry out together with the government will cost some US$240 million. Staatsolie is to guarantee full financing. The project will generate around 60 megawatts of energy. According to Staatsolie’s managing director Mark Waaldijk and deputy director Annand Jagesar, this available energy could even be exported to French Guiana and Guyana in the long run. Jean-Paul Le Pelletier, president of the industry division of French Guyana’s Chamber of Commerce, tells DWT that he has been engaged in talks for some time now with Suriname about supplying energy to French Guiana. “We have an energy shortage and would like to import that from Suriname”, Le Pelletier says. According to Waaldijk, the Tapajai project offers possibilities to look towards the Guianas in any case. Jagesar, who is in charge of the project’s implementation, says an environmental impact study must still be conducted. Meanwhile, Staatsolie is in talks with the inhabitants of villages in the area. The Tapajai Hydro-project has been set up to divert water from the Tapanahony River via creeks, canals and dams to the Van Blommenstein reservoir.
