A new bridge has come to symbolise
Brazil's most challenging and urgent issue: balancing the demands of economic development with environmental protectionIn the shadow of a giant bridge under construction, waiting in her dented Fiat for a ferry, Jandira Costa has no qualms about development in the Amazon. "We can't wait for it to open," she says of the 3.5km-long road over the Amazon's major tributary, the Rio Negro. Without a bridge, it takes Costa and her family at least half an hour to queue up and cross to the other side. Worse, crossing the river costs up to 100 real (around £37). When the bridge is completed in November, it be quicker, more convenient, and - most importantly for Costa - free.The bridge - the first on the world's greatest river system symbolises the surging development at the heart of the world's largest rain
forest and will bring much-needed economic opportunities for those living on the far bank. But
environmentalists fear that the bridge, combined with new gas pipelines, roads and rising populations, could open up the rainforest to further destruction.Manaus is the steamy and sprawling industrial capital of the vast Amazonas state, manufacturing the latest flatscreen TVs and mobile phones for the whole of Brazil. It has been an island of wealth for 200 years, but it is now opening up in all directions.The bridge runs from north to south, to the undeveloped towns of
Iranduba, Manacapuru and Novo Airão and towards the untouched jungle. To the west, a 600km gas pipeline will next month begin powering a huge new electricity power station by bringing
energy from a pristine part of the forest at Urucu into the city.To the south, the planned re-paving of an impassable 900km-long highway could break Manaus's isolation from the rich and populous south, and to the east, a new electricity line will connect the city to the national grid, giving an outlet for the fossil fuel and hydroelectric riches of the Amazon, such as the recently approved ...
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