Dams and resources
Dams and resourcesThe Environmental Impacts of Large Dams
Land and water are ecologically linked in a natural system called a watershed. From the smallest
droplet to the mightiest river, water works to shape the land, taking with it sediment and dissolved materials
that drain to watercourses and, in most cases, eventually to the sea. So is the river a product of the land it
inhabits--the type of rock and soil, the shape of the land, and the amount of vegetation are some of the
factors that determine the river's shape, size and flow.
When these ties between the land and the river are broken by a large dam, the consequences are felt
throughout the watershed, as well as by the web of life it supports. Of all the ways to tamper with or harm a
river, a large dam usually has the most immediate and far-reaching effects because of the huge changes it
causes to river circulation system.
Some 40,000 large dams, most of which were built in the past 50 years, now obstruct the world's
rivers. More than 400,000 square kilometers--an area larger than Zimbabwe, and 13 times the size of
Lesotho. Volta Reservoir behind Ghana's Akasombo Dam, flooded 4% of that nation's land area. In the
United States, whose 5,500 large dams make it the second most dammed country in the world, we have
stopped building large dams, and are now spending great amounts of money trying to fix the problems
created by existing dams.
Although the impacts of large dams have been well documented for some time now, in case after
case, new ones are proposed whose environmental impacts are downplayed or even ignored. A suvey
showed that most dams were built without the consideration of downstream effects, even when these
impacts could be predicted to cause massive coastal erosion, pollution, and other problems.
Reducing the flow of water from a river changes the landscape it flows through, which in turn can
affect the ecosystem's flora and fauna. A dam holds back sediments, especially the heavy gravel and cobbles.
The river, deprived of its sediment load, seeks to recapture it by eroding the downstream channel and banks,
and other riverbank structures. Riverbeds are typically eroded by several meters within a decade of first
closing a dam; the damage can extend for tens or even hundreds of kilometers below a dam. Within nine
years of closing Hoover Dam in the US, the riverbed below the dam had lowered by more than 4 meters.
Riverbed deepening will also lower the groundwater table along a river, threatening vegetation and local
wells in the floodplain and requiring crop irrigation in places where there was previously no need. The
reduction of riverbed gravels reduces habitat for many fish that spawn in the gravelly river bottom, and for
invertebrates such as insects, molluscs, and crustaceans.
Before the Aswan High Dam, the Nile River carried about 124 million tons of sediment to the sea
each year, depositing nearly 10 million tons on the floodplain and delta. Today, 98% of that sediment
remains behind the dam. The result has been a drop in soil productivity and depth, among other serious
changes to Egypt's floodplain agriculture. The Aswan Dam has also led to serious coastal erosion, another
problem stemming from the loss of sediments in a dammed river. Another example of this problem is along
the mouth of the Volta River in Ghana. This dam has cut off the supply of sediment to the surrounding
rivers, whose coasts are now being eaten away at a rate of 10-15 meters per year. A project to strengthen
the river�s coast has cost $3.5 million for each kilometer protected. The story is the same on coastline after
coastline where dams have stoppered a river's sediments.
Dams also change the pattern of the flow of a river, both reducing its overall volume and changing
its seasonal changes. The nature of the impacts depends on the design, purpose and operation of the dam,
among other things. All parts of a river's ecology can be impacted by changes to its flow.
The river's part, where fresh water meets the sea, is a particularly rich ecosystem. Some 80% of the
world's fish catch comes from these habitats, which depend on the volume and timing of nutrients and fresh
water. The alteration of the flows reaching these parts because of dams and diversions is a major cause of
the decline of sea fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, the Black and Caspian Seas, California's San Francisco
Bay, the Eastern Mediterranean and others. The regulation of the Volta River in Ghana has led to the
disappearance of the once thriving clam industry at the river's estuary, as well as the serious decline of
barracuda and other sport fish.
The storage of water in dams delays and reduces floods downstream. River and floodplain
ecosystems are closely adapted to a river's flooding cycle. The native plants and animals depend on its
variations for reproduction, hatching, migration and other important lifecycle stages. Annual floods deposit
nutrients on the land, flush out backwater channels, and replenish wetlands. It is generally recognized by
biologists that dams are the most destructive of the many abuses causing the rapid disappearance of animals
relying on the water. About 20% of the world's recognized 8,000 freshwater species are threatened with
extinction.
The floodplain itself is also affected by dams. Studies on the floodplain of a river in South Africa
has shown a reduction in diversity of forest species after it was dammed. And forests along Kenya's largest
river appear to be slowly dying out because of the reduction in high floods due to a series of dams.
Fifty years ago, the United States rushed into a water development program with little
understanding of the negative impacts it would have on its rivers and all who depend on them. Today, we
are beginning to "pay the piper" in depleted fisheries, damaged ecosystems, receding coastlines and many
other problems linked to the damming of our rivers. We are now being forced to manage our dams
differently, allowing more flow to the environment in an effort to stop further dam-related destruction of
ecosystems and taking other costly steps to save valuable fisheries. We are even preparing to take down
some particularly bad dams, at enormous expense. And we no longer build big dams.
Although it has now become very difficult to build destructive river projects in the US and many
other highly dammed countries, our hydro industry and financial institutions continue to export this obsolete
technology, much in the same way the chemical industry continued to export pesticides long after they had
been banned in the country of origin. At dam conferences, the talk these days always centers around finding
"fresh markets" to exploit and new ways to sell dams to a skeptical public.
The new South Africa has the opportunity to devise a water policy that builds on what the world
has learned in the past fifty years of unchecked river development, and that involves civil society in the
decision-making process. In the longterm, such an approach is the only one that doesn't diminish one of
Africa's most treasured resources--its rivers.