Chixoy Project History

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Recommended: Impacts of imf and world bank

The World Bank has had many controversial operations in their history. Their existence has been rife from inclusions into conspiracy theory, all the way to globalization activists of which the current president of the World Bank once was (World Bank President Jim Yong Kim: The Vice News Interview). While some of the allegations towards the group might be exaggerated, they are far from freedom of scrutiny. In particular is the exceptional case of the Chixoy Dam in Guatemala, of which it is difficult to imagine a worse outcome.

The main structures for the Chixoy project was a 108 meter hydroelectrical dam close to the junction of the Chixoy and Quixal rivers, 25.6 km power tunnel, and a power plant that generates a total of 300MW when fully operational. The project was expected to cost a total of 414.08 million US dollars with initial loans from the International Bank for reconstruction and Development (IBRD also known as the World Bank) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) being 72 and 105 million US dollars respectively (At the time of 1978). …show more content…

Directly after the massacre/relocation of the Mayans, many of the promised compensations for their relocations were not met (The World Bank, 2000). The World Bank delegated the National Fund for Peace to administer the compensations and by 1998 had finished. However the quality of the compensation was poorly managed as the land in which the Mayans received in return ranged from no land [44 families], infertile land [46 families] and to fertile rainforest [62 families](The World Bank 2000). In addition there were no reparations for the murders up until 2015. On October 15 of 2015, the surviving members of the massacres and resettlement finally received payment totalling 154 million USD of which neither the World Bank nor the IDB needed to pay (Russel, April

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