Michel Dolbec , THE CANADIAN PRESS

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PARIS - Critics of a new hydroelectric project in Quebec now have a prominent ally - Nobel Prize-winning author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

In an opinion piece published Wednesday in French-language daily Le Monde, Le Clezio denounces the Romaine River hydro project launched by the Quebec government last May.

The French author, who received the Nobel literature prize in 2008, decried the impact the $6.5 billion project will have on the region's natural beauty.

``Look at the photo that accompanies this piece,'' he wrote.

``Because soon it may be nothing but a memory.''

Le Clezio goes on to predict that forests and the life they contain will disappear should massive dams continue to be built.

``The result will be the decomposition of flora and the asphyxiation of the ecosystem,'' he said.

He also contends the river's destruction would be an environmental catastrophe harmful to the Innu way of life.

``Forever, the river has been visited by nomadic Innu - the Native American tribe known to Quebecers as the Montagnais, '' the prize-winning author wrote.

``The Innu live in harmony with the river, it is their mother. For them, it is a sacred river linked through millennia to their history as it brings them game, fish and medicinal plants and berries.''

When Premier Jean Charest helped launch the project in May, he called it the biggest construction initiative in Canada.

Four dams are to be built on the river on Quebec's Lower North Shore by 2020.

The Romaine River is one of the largest remaining undammed rivers in the province and flows through northern Quebec before emptying into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Both Quebec and Ottawa have determined that construction of the dams should not have a major environmental impact on the river.

The project would produce 1,550 megawatts of power, with the electricity from the complex just north of Havre-Saint-Pierre destined for export.

In his article, Le Clezio also mentions Innu poet Rita Mestokosho, who has spearheaded the fight against the behemoth hydroelectric project.

``She speaks of the fragility of the river, of the environmental disaster that would be caused by the flooding of the surrounding valley,'' he says.

``She speaks of the fragility of her people and how this project condemns them to death.''

Mestokosho wanted to go to court to fight the government decision but the Innu Nation rallied behind the project, says Le Clezio, because they were pressured by Hydro-Quebec lawyers and the promise of jobs and economic development.

``It is easy to criticize that decision from a distance,'' he notes, but adds that he still thinks the river's destruction would be an irreversible tragedy with as yet unforeseen consequences.

``If, despite evidence of the errors of the modern technocratic world, the Romaine river disappears, we will have lost something in the battle and be right to bitterly question the future we leave to our descendants.''