The promotions of mega-constructions are usually based in ideas of development and progress. However, the report showed by the World Commission on Dams in November of 2000, responsabilized the big reservoirs, main projects on sustainable regional development, as generators of social and environmental damages. Thus, the main objective of the present study was to investigate the social transformations in the communities of the islanders and riparian people from Ituzaingó, from the changes in the ecological landscape since the constructions of the hydroelectric power plants of Yacyretá (Corrientes, Argentina). Thereby, were analyzed the general characteristics of the dam and the main environmental and social contradictions detected in the city and in the traditional communities of the islanders and riparian people. The results showed, in a way, for the ex-islanders and ex-riparian people any mitigation measure is not able to compensate the loss of his previous way of life; and on the other hand, the lack of serious social and environmental politics of Yacyretá dam, and besides of this, a small or no development of Ituzaingó and region after construction of the dam.
Yacyretá Dam; Ituzaingó; Mega-Constructions; Paraná River
