Brazil has approved the construction of an environmentally controversial hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest, government officials say.
Environment Minister Carlos Minc says the 310 square miles of rainforest to be flooded for the Belo Monte project are just a fraction of the area originally planned to be inundated, The Times of London reported Wednesday.
Building of the dam on the Xingu River started in the 1990s but was halted after widespread protests in Brazil and abroad.
Environmentalists and human rights advocates joined forces against the project, saying it would devastate the rainforest and cause the displacement of indigenous peoples.
Once constructed, the $17 billion, 11-gigawatt dam would be the third largest in the world, after China's Three Gorges and Itaipu on the Brazil-Paraguay border, and could provide electricity to as many as 23 million homes.
The Brazilian government says its construction is vital to the country's economic growth.
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