COMPLEJO TURÍSTICO ITAIPÚ

In the 1960s, Brazil's rapid demographic and economic development made it necessary to find new sources of energy, to meet the growing demand of the megacities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in particular. Negotiations began in 1966 with Paraguay, to undertake research along the border river, the río Paraná, which, with its tributaries, constitutes the third largest hydrographic network in the world. The site of Itaipú ("singing stone" in Guarani), a small rocky island 14 km from the towns of Foz and Ciudad del Este, attracted the engineers' attention. The river was narrow at this point, and the basalt bedrock could support the massive weight of a future structure. On April 26, 1973, after several years of technical and financial studies, the military governments of Brazil and Paraguay signed the Treaty of Itaipú, which provided for the construction of a joint hydroelectric plant. The following year, a binational entity was created to manage the construction and operation of the plant: the Itaipú Binational Entity. Work began in May 1975, with the excavation of 22.5 million tonnes of earth and rock to create a canal (90 m deep, 150 m wide, 2 km long), designed to temporarily divert the river from its natural course while the future dam was built. From 1978 to 1982, we built the dikes upstream and downstream of the future dam, the central dam and side dams (7.2 km in total) and the spillway (to prevent the reservoir from overflowing). Then came the installation of the turbines for the power plant itself. The first electricity-generating unit went into operation in May 1984, and the entire power station was operational in March 1991, with 18 turbines (rising to 20 in 2007). This titanic project cost the equivalent of 20 billion dollars, most of which was diverted by corruption! It required, among other things, six concrete batching plants, each with a capacity of 180 m³/hour, two enormous cooling plants to produce chilled water (not for the workers' tereré, but to cool the concrete, which had to withstand the region's high temperatures), the iron and steel equivalent of 380 Eiffel Towers, dozens of cranes and hundreds of trucks and bulldozers, and more than 40,000 workers and engineers. The cities of Foz and Ciudad del Este tripled their population and modernized at breakneck speed.

For many years, Itaipú was the world's largest and most powerful hydroelectric power station (prior to the commissioning of China's Three Gorges plant in 2006). This has led to its inclusion in the list of the Seven Wonders of the Technological World, on a par with the Channel Tunnel and the Panama Canal. It produces 90 billion kilowatts of electrical energy every hour, and has an installed capacity of 14 million kilowatts. The plant supplies 91% of the electricity consumed in Paraguay and 25% of that consumed in Brazil. But South America's most impressive engineering feat has also had a significant ecological and social impact. While the plant saves 500,000 barrels of oil a day, its thirst for energy has demanded major sacrifices. The reservoir lake, which filled up in 14 days in October 1982, flooded a large part of the Paraná river valley under 100 metres of water, including 1,500 km² of primary forests and farmland, where thousands of peasant and indigenous families lived. These families were displaced without any real compensation. Many of the displaced Brazilian farmers moved to the Paraguayan side of the river, where land was cheaper. A rescue plan organized by environmental volunteers saved thousands of animals from drowning, but most of them disappeared, along with their habitat. The lake also swallowed up the mythical Cascade of the Seven Falls (Saltos del Guairá), a succession of 18 falls, including 7 main ones, considered to be the largest and among the most beautiful in the world.

A guided tour is offered free of charge to visitors. It begins with a rather "propagandistic" film about the dam and power station, then you're taken by bus to a mirador auditorium for a panoramic view of the dam. On Fridays and Saturdays (6.30pm in winter, 7.30pm in summer), the Iluminación Monumental takes place , a lovely light and music show lasting around 30 minutes. It's free, but reservations must be made in advance (by Thursday at the latest). Two other types of tour, called " especial" and "técnica", are more technical. They are subject to special conditions (number of people, or functions) and allow you to enter the power plant, to observe the turbines up close. These two special tours must be booked at least one week in advance.

Modelo reducido. 1 km from the visitor center (on the other side of the road), a one-hundredth-scale replica of the Itaipú power plant. This open-air model, 280 m long and 5,500 m² in area, was designed to simulate the dam's operation. Guided tours Tuesday to Sunday at 8.15 am, 9.15 am, 10.15 am, 11.15 am, 1.15 pm, 2.15 pm and 3.15 pm.