Residents driven from urban beach now live in wretched conditions by open sewers It was after midnight when the police came to Areia Branca a fishing community on a spit of sand not far from the heart of Luanda the neighborhood – “White Sand” in English – was a haven for thousands of families city officials and tilapia sellers relaxed after work in spacious backyards Ocean breezes cooled them and helped keep mosquitos away But the same qualities that attracted its working class and poor residents also made it ideal — in the view of a business consortium led by Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the country’s autocratic president — for a coastal road and luxury hotel to serve the elite of one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities human rights activists and former residents say including members of the presidential guard handcuffed objectors and beat them with clubs according to complaints compiled by Luanda-based nonprofit SOS Habitat They shut down access to the telephone network Residents were ordered to stay put until it was over “They kept us for seven days in front of our ruined houses without food or water,” said Talitha Miguel many residents settled a few hundred yards away in an overcrowded slum next to a flood-prone drainage ditch The Areia Branca evictions were to make way for a proposed $1.3 billion urban redevelopment plan championed by dos Santos A few months before residents were forced out her company received presidential approval to manage the project The story of the evictions, and the hardships suffered by the displaced people of Areia Branca, emerged as part of the Luanda Leaks investigation into more than two decades of inside deals benefiting Africa’s wealthiest woman. The reporting, from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 36 media partners also revealed how Western companies and professional services advisers helped build and maintain the dos Santos empire To confirm the links between the evictions and the dos Santos-backed development project ICIJ spent months comparing leaked material to information gathered in Luanda from other documents and interviews is always a story about human rights and the abuse of ordinary citizens,” said Claudia Gastrow an anthropologist at the University of Johannesburg The chaos did not reflect the “Paris of Africa” dreams harbored by Angola’s elite awarded his office exclusive control over the planning for the part of the city that included Areia Branca That arrangement effectively became part of the Luanda master plan as a broader project to redesign the city came to be known The master plan envisioned tree-lined highways that would seamlessly connect downtown to shopping centers Luanda would become “Africa’s premier visitor destination” and represent Angola “at its best,” according to leaked documents Supporters of the plan touted the potential for new jobs The master plan needed a master. In early 2013, two of Isabel dos Santos’ companies won approval to oversee the redevelopment of the area that included Areia Branca In comments to ICIJ delivered through Carter-Ruck dos Santos later described Urbinveste as “the vision and concept creator” behind the project But she said no evictions were associated with the project’s design because it was to be built on “100% reclaimed land from the sea.” the Luanda city tourism agency pitched the dos Santos plan that included the Areia Branca area to the president according to a leaked report prepared by the agency A high-speed roadway straddled by parking lots restaurants and a business center would replace Areia Branca and other nearby properties according to designs prepared by dos Santos’ Urbinveste and her business partners Documents show that the company received at least $12 million from the Angolan government for work on the project “Broadway Malyan is committed to operating in a responsible and ethical manner in all work that it does,” it said Urbinveste would act as the “liaison” with government agencies overseen by dos Santos’ father Security guards and drivers made up about half of the company’s staff The company subcontracted everything from road design to palm tree importation Dos Santos was closely involved in the planning she traveled to Van Oord’s Rotterdam office to review the results of topographic surveys conducted after the Areia Branca evictions The Angolan government agency responsible for Luanda’s redevelopment later awarded Urbinveste and Van Oord a $615 million contract to redesign the shoreline close to Areia Branca according to banking instructions shared between the two companies Isabel dos Santos intervened when Angola’s Finance Ministry indicated that it might not have cash to fund part of the project with Van Oord “I don’t think it’s a problem,” dos Santos wrote an assistant in an email “because we’ll talk to [the Finance Ministry] right away.” Van Oord wasn’t the only Western company involved. In 2015, KPMG in Portugal drafted a 99-page business case promoting the project for $315,000 Consulting giant PwC advised Urbinveste on how to route payments to Van Oord through Dubai to access U.S Account managers at the Cape Verde branch of Lisbon-based Banco BIC DV.load("https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6632397-KPMG-Business-Case-Corimba.js" container: "#DV-viewer-6632397-KPMG-Business-Case-Corimba" }); Van Oord said that the $615 million contract was a budget only and the companies were not paid this amount It said it learned of the evictions after receiving questions about Luanda Leaks from Trouw and Het Financieele Dagblad The families were removed before the company became involved in the project It promised to “use its leverage” with the Angolan government and contractors to ensure that the former Areia Branca residents receive compensation In May 2019, João Lourenço,who replaced Isabel dos Santos’ father, canceled the contracts for Luanda’s makeover New contracts would save Angola $380 million The community of Areia Branca never recovered from the evictions unemployment ballooned and some children never returned to school Many families settled a few hundred yards away in a different world Hundreds now live in a maze of corrugated metal and wood shacks surrounded by pooling canals of sewage Water rises with each rainfall, coating floors, alleyways and the slum’s makeshift soccer field with a dark sludge. “Better me than a kid,” one man told Trouw after he slipped and fell into the jet-black sewage last November Residents have complained for years about typhoid according to a letter sent to Luanda’s governor and Angola’s health minister “We are living in terrible conditions,” residents Mário Rui Pinto Pires, Angola’s former state secretary for public investment, told another ICIJ reporting partner, the French paper Le Monde, that the Luanda plan was a poorly conceived “infrastructure program that forgot to think about people.” declined to respond to ICIJ’s questions on the evictions and the residents’ complaints Lourenço insists that his administration is busy tackling corruption Prosecutors say that they are tracing money allegedly moved out of the country by the dos Santos family and associates and that they are collaborating with the U.S. Weeks after ICIJ asked Isabel dos Santos detailed questions Angolan prosecutors froze her assets and ordered her to return $1 billion Following the publication of Luanda Leaks, the Portuguese prosecutor’s office central bank and securities market regulator announced probes into her business dealings Dos Santos insists that she has done nothing wrong and has accused Lourenço of conducting a political “witch hunt.” a solitary police officer shushed rowdy teenage Boy Scouts there for an afternoon swim Where once pirogues ferried fresh tilapia to a bustling community car seats and orange soda cans now lap against the polluted shore Displaced residents describe alleged abuses but former president’s daughter denies her plan required evictions down the coastal highway heading south from the Angolan capital Swing past the fort built by Portuguese colonialists on the hill above Just before the road heads inland there is a lagoon separated from the sea by a long spit of land it was home to a thriving fishing community of 3,000 families “Now we are living in horrible conditions.” Many of Areia Branca’s former residents have moved to the other side of the lagoon Previously a waste dump through which two sewage channels flowed it has become home to 500 families sharing tiny shacks made of corrugated tin Pedro Alexandrino in Povoado Photograph: Jason Burke/The GuardianChildren play among piles of rotting rubbish Alexandrino and his neighbours say they did not move voluntarily They claim they were evicted in June 2013 by police Their homes were bulldozed amid violent scenes as some inhabitants resisted The Luanda Leaks investigation, based on a huge cache of financial records belonging to Isabel dos Santos the daughter of Angola’s former president José Eduardo dos Santos suggest her company stood to benefit from a redevelopment of the vacated land ShowThe Luanda Leaks project is based on a trove of 715,000 emails audits and accounts detailing the business operations of Isabel dos Santos the daughter of the former president of Angola The files were initially obtained by the anti-corruption charity Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which cover a period between 1980 and 2018 have been reviewed by more than 120 journalists from 37 media outlets the BBC and the Portuguese newspaper Expresso The documents, seen by the Guardian and other media partners in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), suggest as much as $500m of state payments were earmarked for Dos Santos companies and their subcontractors, after they signed deals to lead what became known as the Marginal da Corimba project, a multibillion-dollar real estate and highway development along Luanda’s coastline. Read moreThe project was cancelled by Angola’s new president two years ago It was one of many ventures critics say allowed Dos Santos and her husband the opportunity to profit from the state in sectors as diverse as construction oil and gas and diamonds while her father was in power The couple steadfastly deny any allegations of nepotism or corruption and say the recent moves by the Angolan government to freeze their assets in the country over matters unrelated to the Luanda development project Dos Santos said these criticisms were “completely unfounded” and part of an “orchestrated attack by the current government that is completely politically motivated” She says the couple’s companies are privately funded there are no proceeds from public contracts or money that has been deviated from other funds,” she told the BBC Life in the Povoado slum in Luanda. Photograph: The GuardianA child at a wash basin Photograph: The GuardianReshaping the cityLuanda is a fast-growing city Its population has expanded from 1 million in the 1980s to 8 million today and is projected to reach 13 million over the next decade During the oil boom that followed the end of the civil war in 2002 it became one of the most expensive places on Earth rival development plans competed for land and finance The president’s daughter saw an opportunity to bring some order with what came to be known as the Luanda masterplan “I was fortunate enough to be a leading consultant in the Luanda masterplan,” she said in a lecture at the London School of Economics. “It’s a personal issue for me.” Dos Santos talks proudly about her work, but many aspects of how the project was managed, and who stood to benefit, have remained unclear – until now. Read moreMarginal da Corimba was a centrepiece of her vision for Luanda the proposed development involved a string of new manmade islands by a coastal highway built on land reclaimed from the sea Dos Santos says she started working on the idea in 2012 through her real estate and construction company a team assembled to turn her vision into reality In 2013, Urbinveste recruited the British architects Broadway Malyan, whose St George Wharf development in London towers over the Thames at Vauxhall, and the Dutch company Van Oord, which had just finished building Dubai’s iconic palm tree-shaped Palm Jumeirah island the architects produced their first high-level sketch The proposed development zone for the Corimba concept is clear from the drawing: it begins at Areia Branca and extends southwards over several kilometres Urbinveste’s plan was not the only idea in play for this stretch of coast Another government-backed project had involved building a highway called Marginal Sudoeste This proposal involved a road skirting the Areia Branca settlement Three weeks later, on 1 June, the bulldozers rolled into Areia Branca. It is not clear if this was a direct result of the president’s decision. What is indisputable is that the entire community was evicted. “We had no warning at all of what was going to happen,” says Alexandrino. “No notice, no announcement, nothing.” Read moreThe 49-year-old community leader had built his two-bedroom home in Areia Branca. He had four children and a job on a mining project run by Sodiam, the state-owned diamond company I saw bulldozers on trucks on the road when I came in and wondered what they were for At 2am I heard noise and saw the soldiers and police and then I understood that the bulldozers were there to destroy the houses.” and material gathered by the charity SOS Habitat for an ongoing legal challenge describe the alleged abuses that followed: the road to the mainland was blocked and the electricity and telephone cables were cut; identity documents were seized and thrown into the sea Those who resisted were allegedly handcuffed Two youths are reported to have died after being run over One fell under the wheels of a truck allegedly after being beaten with a club His body was taken away by police and his family say it was never returned to them Residents boarded trucks after being told they would be driven to new homes But they say they were dumped on the roadside Those who refused to leave were allegedly driven from the island with teargas after they had sought refuge in churches and a hospital the police chief told the community about Povoado “And living here everything is a problem.” A child in the slum. ‘Human rights aren’t respected here,’ says Alexandrino. Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianTalitha Miguel who recalls how the community sought refuge before being directed to the Povoado area Photograph: The Guardian‘Everything was demolished’Their former home remains an empty space no developer has built on the land or claimed responsibility for the clearance An impact study produced some time later for Urbinveste points the finger at the ministry of construction saying the “slum” was cleared to “pave the way for the ongoing construction work of expansion of Marginal Sudoeste” Broadway Malyan told the Guardian it was not previously aware of the allegations of forced evictions and that its work did not include any plans for clearances it had only produced one preliminary drawing “Broadway Malyan is committed to operating in a responsible and ethical manner in all work that it does,” the firm said “We would never propose or facilitate any such unlawful eviction of residents and we do not condone such behaviour in any way nor want to work with any party who does so.” “He saw the conditions people are living in He said he would talk to his foreign ministry.” Povoado was previously a waste dump. Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianA woman looks for worms to use as bait Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianDos Santos vehemently rejects any involvement in oppression or displacement of Angolan citizens she said “there were never any evictions related to Marginal” whether in Areia Branca or any other part of the city designed to ease traffic congestion in the capital would have avoided the need for evictions because it was going to be built on land reclaimed from the sea She told the BBC that reclaimed land was “relatively cheap” “It’s cheaper than to have to expropriate people so one of the concerns was to make sure that there would be no expropriations.” but involvement in such infrastructure projects can be profitable for companies that receive government contracts in countries such as Angola after several years of planning and negotiations on financing a decree from President Dos Santos greenlit about $1.3bn of public spending Under procurement laws in force at the time public tenders were not always required for state spending Urbinveste was partnered with Van Oord for dredging and building the islands had teamed up with a Chinese group to build the highway and a fishing port A consortium agreement for the dredging stated that in exchange for tasks including the obtaining of work permits Urbinveste and its subcontractors would keep 30% of the contract – or $189m (£145m) The road building was potentially even more lucrative: balance sheets and a draft contract indicate Landscape and its subcontractors would claim as much as 50% of the total value On 15 May 2019, José Eduardo dos Santos’s successor as president, João Lourenço, used his own presidential decree to tear up the dredging and road building contracts, citing “over-invoicing” and “disproportionate compensation”. Read moreAll of the contractors contacted by the Guardian deny any suggestion of over-charging “Allegations of overcharging are false and unfounded,” her lawyers said arguing the consortium’s proposal represented value for money compared with similar land reclamation projects in Qatar and Indonesia They said no money was collected from the road-building deal because it was cancelled Dos Santos says her overall Luanda masterplan involved extensive public soundings Her lawyers point out that the architectural plans won an award a Portuguese architect who wrote his PhD thesis about Areia Branca and a number of unrelated evictions that occurred during the development boom in Luanda warned or shown plans before being displaced “This is not so different to what was being done in colonial times by the Portuguese,” says Moreira “The design of the city is just a privilege of a few people who are deciding what is going to happen in a vast area that affects millions of people.” Children playing There is no trace left of the fishing community’s homes on Areia Branca Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianBack in Povoado Alexandrino has a message for Europeans working in Angola: “Human rights aren’t respected here I think that foreign businesses should pay more attention to that.” has signed a contract with wind power developer Voltalia for the supply of 99 megawatts (MW) total capacity for the Vila Pará wind farm in the state of Rio Grande do Norte (northeastern Brazil) installation and commissioning of the 3-MW wind turbines as well as a long-term maintenance service agreement The AW125/3000 model turbines each have a rotor diameter of 125 meters and a capacity of 3 MW They will be assembled in the plant that ACCIONA Windpower opened in Simões Filho (Bahia) last December The 120-meter towers to support the turbines will also be built by the company in Brazil in its plant at Areia Branca located near the future wind farm Supplies for the Vila Pará wind farm are planned to take place in 2016 The complex was awarded to Voltalia in the Leilao A-5 call for tender in 2013 and the decision made by the Brazilian Government in December that year “This new contract with Voltalia confirms the competitiveness of our AW3000 wind turbine in Brazil and the increasing presence of our company in one of the most dynamic wind power markets in the world” “We would like to thank Voltalia once again for the confidence they has shown in our product and we hope to continue working with them on the wind power development of the country,” he adds The Vila Pará project is the fourth supply contract signed by ACCIONA Windpower for wind farms in which Voltalia holds a stake in Rio Grande do Norte It joins other contracts for the wind power complexes of Areia Branca (90 MW) both 100% owned by Voltalia and already operational which belongs to a consortium involving Voltalia This wind farm is currently under construction ACCIONA Windpower has sold 1,119 MW of capacity in Brazil since it began marketing its AW3000 wind turbine in 2012 The range has shown itself to be highly competitive and adaptable to the variety of prevailing wind conditions in the country and it offers a high level of reliability and performance at a low energy cost in relation to the power generated ACCIONA Windpower currently has a workforce of 293 people in Brazil and the company’s activity has created or consolidated more than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country I accept Information on data protection In compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on Data Protection and with other Data Protection regulations in force you are hereby informed that your personal data shall be processed by Acciona whose identification data are as follows: Tax ID No (NIF): A08001851; 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Furthermore, at any time the data subject may withdraw the granted consent by contacting the aforementioned address and file a claim to the Supervisory Authority (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos www.aepd.es) You can also unsubscribe from the Newsletter communication For any further information you can visit the Privacy Police on the website https://www.acciona.com/privacy-policy/ Brazil’s Infrastructure Ministry has awarded two 25-year concessions for port terminals near the easternmost part of Brazil Empresa Alagoana de Terminales won the concession to operate the MAC13 terminal in the Maceió Port Complex with a bid of just 15,000 reais (about $2,700) The Intersal Consortium won the licence for the salt terminal of the port of Areia Branca with an offer of 100,000 reais (about $18,000) Each company was the only bidder for its respective concession they committed to invest 222m reais (about $40m) in terminal infrastructure According to National Secretary of Ports and Water Transport Diogo Piloni the government expected to receive low bids for the licences because of the high investments required to efficiently operate the terminals Brazilian Minister of Infrastructure Tarcisio de Freitas said the new investments will strengthen the sugar sector in Alagoas and the salt production sector in Rio Grande do Norte IMO is bound by the membership of its Flag.. 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Brazil’s SENAI Institute for Innovation in Renewable Energies (ISI-ER) expects to receive a licence for a pilot offshore wind project in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in the second half of this year ISI-ER filed an application with the country’s Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA) at the beginning of 2023 requesting an environmental licence for a two-turbine 22 MW offshore wind project at a site located 20 kilometres off the coast of Areia Branca The project aims to test the offshore wind technology under real operating conditions to gather data that would serve future offshore wind projects in Brazil This involves analysing the performance of offshore wind equipment in conditions of the Brazilian equatorial sea The updates on the project were presented by the director of ISI-ER and its regional department SENAI-RN at the Brazil Offshore Wind Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 26 and 27 March “We are in a very mature phase regarding the project We are going to conclude the environmental impact documentation this semester and we hope that next semester we will have the license in hand from Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) with whom we have been in permanent discussions about the process,” Rodrigo Mello said Work is underway on determining the foundation type and the wind turbine model as well as on financing the research project once the environmental licensing process is concluded these other processes will also be mature,” Mello said adding that the project timeline depends on these activities besides the pilot project in Rio Grande do Norte Get in front of your target audience in one move OffshoreWIND.biz is read by thousands of offshore wind professionals daily Daily news and in-depth stories in your inbox More about this company Browse all Business Guide companies 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects news and interviews about your industry in English