{"id":50007436,"date":"2016-10-13T23:58:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T22:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.dialogochino.net\/?p=7436&lang=es"},"modified":"2023-06-02T15:07:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T14:07:30","slug":"7436-brazilian-transmission-line-worker-dies-in-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/energy\/7436-brazilian-transmission-line-worker-dies-in-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazilian transmission line worker dies in accident"},"content":{"rendered":"

An employee of Chinese construction company Sepco1 has died during the clearing of vegetation for a giant transmission line<\/a> originating at the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the state of Par\u00e1, northern Brazil.<\/p>\n

Twenty-nine year old chainsaw operator Vagner Antunes, who had six years of experience, was sitting under a coconut tree sharpening his tools on September 20 when he was hit by the branch of a tree felled 27 metres away by another worker, according to Virg\u00ednio Pereira da Silva, 30, a co-worker and childhood friend of Antunes who was present at the scene.<\/p>\n

“He was sitting within a 24 metre radius. We didn’t even have a stretcher on site to take him [anywhere] for help,\u201d Pereira da Silva told Di\u00e1logo Chino<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Pereira da Silva said he and other workers took Antunes to the nearby town of Anapu but he required medical procedures the local helath facility could not provide. He was referred to a hospital in the city of Altamira around 130 kilometres (80 miles) away where he died two days later.<\/p>\n

Sepco1 has yet to release an official statement about the accident. Di\u00e1logo Chino<\/em> understands the company will provide Antunes\u2019 family with compensation.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time questions have been raised over Sepco1\u2019s labour standards in Brazil. In 2015, local authorities in Par\u00e1 found a number of irregularities with the company including workers being contracted without formal registration. According to Laura Fernandes, a federal labour prosecutor for the state of Par\u00e1, they also found 22 Chinese working illegally without visas. The company was fined and signed an agreement<\/a> promising to improve its conduct in the future.<\/p>\n

Big in Brazil <\/strong><\/p>\n

Sepco1 is a Brazilian subsidiary of energy giant Power China and is the only Chinese construction company to be subcontracted by Belo Monte Energy Transmission (BMTE), the company responsible for the 2100-kilometre transmission line. BMTE comprises China\u2019s State Grid<\/a> (which owns a majority 51%) and the state-owned Brazilian companies Furnas (24.5%) and Eletronorte (24.5%).<\/p>\n

The transmission line will transport energy from the Belo Monte hydro project to the Estreito substation in the state of Minas Gerais. Construction of the line will clear some 17,000 hectares of native vegetation in the Amazon rainforest and Cerrado Savannah.<\/p>\n

The company has also been involved in construction of the Candiota coal-powered thermoelectric plant in Rio Grande do Sul and transmission from the Teles Pires hydroelectric plant in Mato Grosso, central Brazil.<\/p>\n

By the end of 2015, China Power, Sepco1\u2019s parent company, had over US$77.1 billion in assets and 200,000 employees worldwide. The company is in charge of the nearly two thousand projects across 116 countries.<\/p>\n