From the point of view of the project authors, the most promising HPSs are Evenkijskaya, Turukhanskaya, Osinovskaya and Igarskaya ones on the Yenisei River, Podkamennotungusskaya, Ust-Podkamennotungusskaya HPSs on the river Stony Tunguska, and Motyginsky HPS on the Angara River.
It is remarkable that the calculation of the hydro potential of the rivers in the area, which formed the HPSs’ construction plan, was developed as far back as the beginning of the 1960s without taking into consideration any possible social and environmental impacts.
And the consequences of building such large-scale hydro-technical structures are unpredictable and are likely to cause irreversible environmental changes on the territories far exceeding the areas of building and flooding of the reservoir. Moreover, they will disrupt the traditional way of life of the indigenous population and increase social tension in the region.
The consequences of construction of Evenki HPS are to be mentioned separately.
According to the research data, 900 thousand ha of unique deciduous forests practically unaffected by human activities and very important for the conservation of biological diversity and ecological balance not only of Russia but of the whole planet, will be floated as a result of construction of Evenki HPS.
As the research of the Russian Academy of Sciences shows these forests play a vital role in carbon balance maintenance and, consequently, restrain global climate change.
Key territories of traditional nature management of Evenki (the indigenous people of Russia) can be totally wiped out because of Evenki HPS construction.
Even the administrative center of Evenki — the former capital of Evenki district — Tours village is to be floated.
In other words, the Evenki HPS construction implies destruction of Evenki population as it destroys the basis of Evenki culture and household, the whole system of this nation’s life in high latitudes and extremely harsh climate.
Moreover, floated will be at least one of three chambers of underground nuclear explosions containing radioactive brine which were carried out in the floodplain of the Lower Tunguska River in the 70s of last century.
According to the result of the public opinion survey initiated by the developers of Evenki HPS’s pre-project materials, 87% of respondents in the Evenki municipal district of Krasnoyarsk region voted against its construction.
At the public hearings the population of majority of villages of Evenki district opposed to the plans of HPS construction, whereas Tour hearings were declared invalid.
Other projects — the construction of Motyginsky HPS, for instance, will cause irrevocable damage as well — the last big massif of intact forests in the Lower Angara region will be floated which will inevitably affect natural system of the whole Angara basin.
After all, the construction of planned HPSs will demonstrate the violation of international law and Russian legislation: The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), ILO Convention № 169 "Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, Federal Law "On Environmental Protection", Federal Law "On Guarantees of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation ".
“Krasnoyarsk region is abundant in terms of energy production, that’s why the construction of 7 more big HPSs won’t bring any economic benefits to the region” — says Mikhail Kreindlin of Greenpeace Russia, head of the Protected Areas Programme. “However, it will lead to ecosystem destruction of the whole basin of the Yenisei River — one of the major rivers of Russia."