world rivers review: focus on rivers, water and climate - september 2010

8/8/2019 World Rivers Review: Focus on Rivers, Water and Climate - September 2010

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Pakistans most populous province; Tarbela Dam (Pakistans larg-est), and Mangla Dam.

North AmericaDams on the Texas-Mexico border were closely watched as twotropical storms brought high runo to that region in July. Twodams in the region have or years been deemed unsa e by the USInternational Boundary and Water Commission.

According to a report in The Brownsville Herald, o the ourunsa e dams in South Texas, de ciencies at Amistad Dam are ur-gent" and at Falcon Dam are high priority. Sinkholes at AmistadDam were rst identi ed in 1990. Inspectors noted that Falcon Damsentire oundation was in need o urther evaluation. Both dams alsohave a hazard-potential classi cation o high, meaning that loss o li e or signi cant property damage is expected i the dams ail.

The dams are multipurpose projects that are meant to storewater and, ironically, provide food control. A ailure o the AmistadDam could release 4.9 million acre- eet o water, the Herald re-ports. (An acre- oot is enough to cover one acre in a oot o water.)

And in Kentucky, Wol Creek Dam, one o the countrys largest,was recently designated high risk" or ailure by the US Army

Corps o Engineers, requiring emergency measures to reduce animminent risk o human li e in the Cumberland River valley.

The dam was built on porous limestone. Over time, water hasseeped into cracks in the rock, eroding holes and caves. A sink-hole could cause this entire earthen embankment to collapse.

The state has handed out warning radios to all 1,700 residentso Burkesville downstream o the dam

I you live downstream rom the dam, it doesnt matter wheth-

er the dam was attacked by terrorists or whether it ailed becauseo atigue and age and lack o repair. The people downstream areall impacted the same, said Patrick Natale o the American Soci-ety o Civil Engineers.

At this writing, the dams reservoir levels had been lowered toallow repair crews to work.

The US Army Corps also announced it will begin a US$44million repair to a dangerous dam near Seattle this all. TheHoward Hanson Dam on the Green River was weakened byheavy rains in January 2009, increasing the dangers o foodingin the heavily developed Green River Valley downstream. Thedams water level is being kept at about hal o normal until therepairs can be made. l

As we write this, Pakistanis still under water, andmillions are coping withthe a termath o the hugelydestructive foods. But once

the water has subsided and the victims have received support,Pakistan and the internationalcommunity will need to learnthe lessons o the current disas-ter. Are the foods a natural ora human-made disaster? Whatkind o food management willhelp to prevent or mitigate

uture catastrophic foods in atime o climate change?

Daanish Musta a, a waterexpert rom Pakistan whoteaches at Kings College in

London, shed light on thecurrent Pakistan food disasterin a recent interview with the BBC. Musta a explains that by wall-ing in the Indus and destroying natural foodplains, Pakistan hassubstituted high requency, low-intensity foods or low- requency,high-intensity events.

Un ortunately, the river managers in Pakistan do not recog-nize the importance o wetlands to modulating the fow, said Mus-ta a. Instead, The ocus has been on dams, which have their use ul-ness, but wetlands un ortunately have been drained and settled andremoved. As a result, the rivers excess water has nowhere to go.

The Indus has one o the highest silt loads in the world. Dueto dam building, the silt now gets deposited in the riverbed andreservoirs. As a consequence, the riverbed is elevated, its capacity todrain foodwater dwindles, and the pressure on the levees increases.Dam builders have o ten ailed to take such changes into account.

In 2004-10, the World Bankrehabilitated the Taunsa Bar-rage on the Indus at a cost o $144 million. Mushtaq Gaadi,who teaches at Quaid-i-Azam

University in Islamabad, notesthat local NGOs objected tothe rivers engineering perspec-tive and urged the World Bankto pay more attention to thesediment deposition. The Bankre used. Now the embank-ments near the barrage havebreached, and caused hugedevastation in areas that arenot normally fooded. The verystructures meant to controlfooding have partially causedand de nitely exacerbated the

food problem itsel , Gaadiconcludes.

Due to climate change, extreme weather patterns such as thecurrent foods are becoming more and more requent. Managingfoods is a more appropriate response to such a scenario than try-ing to control them. According to Musta a, The kind o monsoonpatterns you are seeing this year is very unusual. The scary part iswe have seen this sort o unusual monsoon pattern about our or

ve times this past decade The undamental message is that thepast averages are not going to hold. There is going to be greateruncertainty in the uture. That being the case, then we have to bea lot more proactive and have to think about, well, i this becomesthe pattern, then what? l

Listen to the BBC interview: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ news/2010/08/100818_indus_wt_sl.shtml

The foods in Pakistan ha e de astated huge sections o the country.Photo: DFID

p k n: w y indu so F ood-p on ?by Peter Bosshard


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In act, our water problem turns out to be much more wor-risome than our energy situation, or three main reasons. First,unlike oil and coal, water is much more than a commodity: it is thebasis o li e. Our decisions about water how to use, allocate, andmanage it are deeply ethical ones; they determine the survival o most o the planets species, including our own. Second, also unlikeoil and coal, water has no substitutes. The global economy is tran-sitioning away rom ossil uels, but there is no transitioning away

rom water. And third, it is through water that we will experiencethe impacts o climate change most directly.

The rise in global temperatures driven by the past 150 years o humanitys greenhouse gas emissions is undamentally altering thecycling o water between the sea, the atmosphere, and the land.Climate scientists warn o more extreme foods and droughts ando changing precipitation patterns that will make many dry areasdrier and wet areas wetter. They warn o melting glaciers and icecaps that within a ew decades could severely diminish the riverfows upon which nearly a third o the worlds people depend.

The e ects o climate change are already calling into ques-tion the very assumptions that have underpinned water planningand management or decades. In 2008, seven top water scientistsargued persuasively in the journal Science that stationarity the oundational concept that natural systems vary and fuctuatewithin an unchanging set o boundaries is no longer valid or ourunderstanding o the global water system. In other words, when itcomes to water, the past is no longer a reliable guide to the uture.The data and statistical tools used to plan $500 billion worth o annual global investments in dams, food-control structures, diver-sion projects, and other big pieces o water in rastructure are nolonger trustworthy.

This is not just a problem or the planners and civil servantswho run our local water systems. It raises very serious questionsabout community health, public sa ety, ood security, and riskmanagement. Will those levees keep the river within its banks?Should that expensive new dam be built when its use ul li e willbe shortened by silt washed down rom fooding mountainsides?Will arms get needed irrigation water once the glacier- ed riverfows have dwindled? How do we guard against what once seemedunthinkable the drying up o prime water sources?

The water challenges con ronting us locally, regionally, andglobally are unprecedented. They call or undamental changes inhow we use, manage, and even think about water. The good newsis that its within our economic and technological ability to have a

uture in which all ood and water needs are met, healthy ecosys-tems are sustained, and communities remain secure and resilientin the ace o changing circumstances. The path most o the worldis on, however, will not lead to this more desirable state.

How we got here Although renewable, reshwater is nite: The quantity available to-day is virtually the same as when civilizations rst arose thousandso years ago. As world population grows, the volume o wateravailable per person decreases; thus, between 1950 and 2009, asworld population climbed rom 2.5 billion to 6.8 billion, the globalrenewable water supply per person declined by 63%.

For most o modern history, water management has ocused onbringing water under human control and trans erring it to expand-ing cities, industries, and arms. Since 1950, the number o largedams has climbed rom 5,000 to more than 45,000. Globally, 364large water-trans er schemes move 400 billion cubic meters (1cubic meter equals about 264 gallons) o water annually rom oneriver basin to another equivalent to trans erring the annual fowo 22 Colorado Rivers. Millions o wells tap underground aqui ers,using diesel or electric pumps to li t vast quantities o groundwaterto the sur ace.

But the bene ts o water development have not been sharedequitably. More than 1 billion people lack access to sa e drinking wa-ter, and some 850 million people are chronically hungry. Moreover,many regions have overshot their sustainable limits o water use.

An unsettling number o large rivers including the Colorado, RioGrande, Yellow, Indus, Ganges, Amu Darya, Murray, and Nile arenow so overtapped that they discharge little or no water to the sea

or months at a time. The over-pumping o groundwater is causingwater tables to all across large areas o northern China, India, Paki-stan, Iran, the Middle East, Mexico, and the western United States.

As much as 10% o the worlds ood is produced by overpumpinggroundwater. This creates a bubble in the ood economy ar more

When it comes to water, the past is no longer a reliable guidby Sandra Postel

The Aral Sea a global poster-child o bad water management oncesupported a major shery until dams and irrigation di ersions drainedit. Photo: Dieter Telemans.

Adapting to a New No

W ater, like energy, is essential to virtually every human endeavor. The growing number o water short-ages around the world and the possibility o these shortages leading to economic disruption, oodcrises, social tensions, and even war suggest that the challenges posed by water in the coming decades willrival those posed by declining oil supplies.


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serious than the recent housing,credit, or dot-com bubbles, or weare meeting some o todays oodneeds with tomorrows water.

It is tempting to respond to thesepredicaments with bigger versionso the amiliar solutions o the past drill deeper wells, build biggerdams, move more river water romone place to another. Indeed, many leaders and localities are respond-ing in just that way. By some estimates, the volume o water movedthrough river-trans er schemes could more than double by 2020.

In a world o changing rain all patterns and river fows, substan-

tial hydrologic uncertainty, and rising energy costs, such projectsare risky. They o ten worsen social inequities, such as when poorpeople are dislocated rom their homes to make way or the damsand canals and downstream communities lose the fows thatsustained their livelihoods. And serious environmental damageroutinely ollows on the heels o such projects. Moreover, large-scale in rastructure built to accommodate river fows today may bepoorly matched to climate-altered fows o the uture.

In addition, giant water projects require giant quantities o energy. Pumping, moving, treating, and distributing water take en-ergy at every stage. The energy required to provide drinking waterto a typical southern Cali ornia home can rank third behind thatrequired to run the air conditioner and re rigerator.

A Smarter Path toward Water Security As with many challenges, nding the best solutions requires rstasking the right questions. Typically, when planners and engineerssee a water shortage on the horizon, they ask themselves whatoptions exist to expand the supply. The typical answer: Get morewater rom a distant river, deeper wells, or a desalination plant.

But as the limitations o these supply-side options havebecome more apparent, a vanguard o citizens, communities,

armers, and corporations has started asking a di erent question:What do we really need the water or, and can we meet that needwith less? The upshot o this shi t in thinking is a new movementin water management that is much more about ideas, ingenu-ity, and ecological intelligence than it is about pumps, pipelines,dams, and canals.

This smarter path takes many orms, but it embodies two stra-tegic attributes. First, the best solutions work with nature, ratherthan against it. In this, they make e ective use o ecosystemservices the bene ts provided by healthy watersheds, rivers,wetlands, and other ecological systems. And second, through bet-ter technologies and more in ormed choices, these solutions seekto raise water productivity the bene t derived rom each liter o water extracted rom a river, lake or aqui er.

Working with nature is critically important to building resilienceand reducing the energy costs associated with water delivery anduse. Healthy rivers and watersheds, or instance, lter out pollut-ants, mitigate foods and droughts, recharge groundwater supplies,and sustain sheries. They do this work with ree energy rom thesun. By contrast, all the technological alternatives building and

running a treatment plant to remove pollutants, arti cially recharg-ing groundwater, constructing dikes and levees, raising sh on

arms require external inputs o increasingly expensive energy.O course, one o the most important services healthy

watersheds per orm is the provision o clean drinking water. I awatershed is doing the work o a water treatment plant lteringout pollutants, and at a lower cost to boot then it o ten pays toprotect that watershed. New York City, or instance, is investingsome $1.5 billion to restore and protect the Catskills-Delawarewatershed (which supplies 90% o its drinking water) in lieu o constructing a $6 billion ltration plant that would cost an addi-tional $300 million a year to operate.

Other innovative ideas are coming rom Latin America, wheresome cities are establishing watershed trust unds. For instance,Rio de Janeiro in Brazil collects ees rom water users to payupstream armers and ranchers $71 per hectare ($28 per acre) toprotect and restore riparian orests, sa eguarding the water supplyand preserving habitat or rare birds and primates. A public water-

shed protection und in Quito, Ecuador, started in 2000 in partner-ship with The Nature Conservancy, receives nearly $1 million a year rom municipal water utilities and electric companies. Quitoswater und has become a model or other Latin American cities.

There are many ways communities can work with nature tomeet their water needs while reducing energy costs and buildingresilience. Communities acing increased food damage, or instance,might achieve cost-e ective food protection by restoring a localrivers natural foodplain. A ter enduring 19 food episodes between1961 and 1997, Napa, Cali ornia, opted or this approach over theconventional route o channelizing and building levees. In partner-ship with the Army Corps o Engineers, the $366 million projectis reconnecting the Napa River with its historic foodplain, movinghomes and businesses out o harms way, revitalizing wetlands, and

constructing levees and bypass channels in strategic locations.Many communities are revitalizing their rivers by tearing down

dams that are no longer sa e or serving a justi able purpose. Overthe past decade some 500 dams have been removed rom USrivers, opening up habitat or sheries, restoring healthier waterfows, improving water quality, and returning aquatic li e to rivers.In the 10 years since the Edwards Dam was removed rom theKennebec River near Augusta, Maine, sh populations have re-turned in astounding numbers, reviving a recreational shery thatadds $65 million annually to the local economy.

O all the water we withdraw worldwide rom rivers, lakes, andaqui ers, 70% is used in agriculture, 20% in industries, and 10%in cities and to wns. With water suppli es tightening, we will need

the uture

Lake Chad, once the ourth largest lake in A rica, has lost 80% o its sur ace area in the past 30 years, and cannow be irtually crossed on oot. Photo: Cdric Faimali

mal

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The impacts o dams onindigenous peoples in the Amazon has been muchin the news o late, as BrazilsLula government attempts to

push through the monstrousBelo Monte Dam on the XinguRiver (see p. 3 or an update onopposition to the dam). But itsnot just megaprojects like BeloMonte that are troublesome. InJuly, a smaller dam being builton the Aripuan River in thestate o Mato Grosso broughtheightened tensions betweenindigenous people in the

Amazon and those who seekto exploit the areas naturalresources.

In late July, energy company Aguas da Pedra, builders o Dar-danelos Dam (261 MW), dynamited a cemetery belonging to the

Arara indigenous tribe. The location o the cemetery had not beenincluded in the dams environmental impact assessment.

We have been waiting since 2005. Were tired. This was a bigcemetery, with all our ancestors, many generations o our tribe,which is right in the construction site. It is a sacred place orus, said tribal leader Aldeci Arara.

In response, 11 tribes led by the Arara, Cinta-Larga, and Rikbakt-sa invaded the construction site. Dressed and armed or war, theyheld close to 100 Aguas da Pedra employees hostage, demandingthat construction be halted and US$5.7 million be paid in compen-sation or the invaluable loss o their ancestors and the damage tothe Aripuan River, whose sh species have disappeared and whosewaters have become polluted since construction began.

Rikbaktsa indigenous leader Jair Tsaidatase told reporters thati they dont accept our negotiations, we will set the dam on re.

One day a ter taking the construction workers hostage, themembers o the tribes took ve project engineers and managersin exchange or releasing the 26 construction workers. The vehostages were later released and an agreement struck between thedam company and the indigenous groups.

Dardanelos is one o a series o hydro projects on the Aripuanthat includes the Juna, Faxinal I, and Faxinal II dams. Construc-tion plans or Dardanelos also include destroying the DardanelosLeap" (Salto de Dardanelos), a world- amous ecotourism siteknown or its spectacular water all and incredible biodiversity.Similar to the Belo Monte Dam, the project would divert the Ar-ipuan River through a water diversion canal, leaving indigenouspeople living downstream o the dam high and dry.

The tragedy highlights the ragile state o relations between theregions indigenous people and dam companies. In 2007, hundredso the Enawen Naw led an occupation o the Telegr ca Damand set re to it, one o nine smaller dams on the nearby JuruenaRiver, ve o which are owned by agribusiness giant Grupo Amaggi.In 2008, urther east on the magni cent headwaters o the Xingu,hundreds o Kamaiur and Ikpeng held hostage workers o theParanatinga II Dam, which diverted the Culuene River. ParanatingaII was one o the original six dams proposed as part o the Belo

Monte complex in 1980, theonly part o the complex tobe built so ar.

The dam occupationsare linked to bad practices

currently at the heart o the Brazilian hydroelectricindustry and in the grantingo environmental licenses.Brazils dam industry regu-larly omits crucial data romimpact studies due to inter-nal pressure to meet politicaltimelines and the promissoryexpectations o investors,rather than ul lling legalobligations to per orm com-prehensive studies o a givenprojects impacts.

Frequently, impact assessments consider fooding to be the onlydirect impact on indigenous people, leading to engineering designssuch as river diversion canals. Yet the impacts o such engineering xes, such as downstream river desiccation, or the discharge o pollutants and the trans ormation o water chemistry and quality,are not considered to directly a ect indigenous people.

Important aspects in the lives o these indigenous people werenot considered by the company. The construction is not locatedinside o the indigenous reserve, but is right on top o an indige-nous cemetery. The company dynamited something o inestimable

value or them, said Antnio Carlos Ferreira Aquino, the regionalcoordinator or Funai, the government agency that deals with in-digenous issues. They dont want money in their hands, what theywant is a sustainable program in the area that will recover the lossthey have su ered.

For now, the current occupation is over and the Arara andothers have gone home. But with so many big dams proposed orunder construction in the Amazon, the next con rontation is only amatter o time. l

a zon ind n t k O D sby Zachary Hurwitz

The Dardanelos Leap will be destroyed by the dam. Photo: Aguas da Pedra

Members o the Cinta Larga tribe, one o 11 a ected by theDardanelos Dam.


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S ince we last reported on South Koreas massive 4-Riversdiversion project ( WRR , Sept. 2009), a great deal has hap-pened and the battle to stop the project has intensi ed.The project continues to be severely criticized by well-quali edscientists, environmentalists, and citizens in Korea and abroad. Alawsuit was led in November 2009 by academics, 10,000 citizens,and 420 citizens groups, refecting the depth o opposition. In2010, Science published a damning article on 4-Rivers, and majorresearch papers detailing the projects anticipated impacts wereissued by Birds Korea and Korean Federation or EnvironmentalMovements (KFEM). Nonetheless, the environmental review waspushed through and construction has begun.

Two months ago, members o SAVE International, an environ-mental group which began at the University o Cali ornia, Berkeley,did eld research on 4-Rivers with members o the Pro essors Or-ganization or Movement Against Grand Korean Canal (POMAC).The trip began with a visit to a still-pristine branch o the Nakdong

River. We were ortunate to visit a beauti ul stretch called theDragons Home, named or its dramatic meanders. The river haswide foodplains, sandy beaches, richly vegetated edges, and agreat diversity o wildli e indicating a healthy, sustaining riverinesystem and a portrait o unparalleled natural beauty.

Our next stops graphically demonstrated what is in store orKoreas rivers. The group visited the construction sites o theSangju Dam on the Nakdong River and Kangcheon Dam on the HanRiver. The delegation observed rst-hand the removal o millionso cubic eet o sand to create deep shipping channels and the losso thousands o acres o rich wetlands known to support criticallyendangered species o birds.

Local action against the 4-Rivers has escalated in recent months.In June, the day be ore mayoral elections in Korea, a Buddhist monk

burned himsel to death in protest. For the past month, three envi-ronmental activists have been protesting at the top o 27-meter-highIpo Dam on the Han River, another o the 16 dams under construc-tion in this huge scheme. The activists are enduring heavy rain, sum-mer heat, typhoon conditions, and police threats in order to raisetheir voice to stop what they call the River Killing Project.

Legal battles to stop the construction are currently heatingup at each o the 4-Rivers sites. POMAC is pressuring National

Assembly members to cancel or reduce the national budget or4-Rivers in 2011. POMAC predicts that once the 2011 budget isapproved, the government will have enough nancial resourcesto complete most o the core construction and the project willbecome irreversible. Working in their avor, the June 2 electionwas considered a progressive victory and vote o no con dence orPresident Lees agenda. Most important, it yielded two new mayorsactively working to block 4-Rivers locally. l

Randy Hester is an emeritus pro essor at the University o Cali ornia,Berkeley Department o Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and a member o SAVE International.

Jong Ho Hong is Associate Pro essor o Economics in the Gradu- ate School o Environmental Studies, Seoul National University; and

ounding member o POMAC.

Marcia McNally is the co-chair o the International Rivers Board o Directors and co- ounder o the Center or Ecological Democracy.

4-Ri ers construction underway on the Nakdong Ri er.Photo: Lauren Stahl

Protesters ha e turned the Ipo Dam into a protest siteagainst the 4-Ri ers project. Photo: Ohmynews

Acti ists protest the 4-Ri ers Project at the South Han Ri er.Photo: Park Jong-hak/KFEM

Ko r F ng i f o -r p ojActivists Step Up Campaign to Stop River-Killing Projectby Randy Hester, Jong Ho Hong and Marcia McNally


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News Briefs Indias frstdam- ree zoneThe government has scrappedthe controversial LoharinagPala Dam on the BhagirathiRiver in the Indian Himalaya.

The river is a key tributaryo the Ganges, and has greatreligious signi cance or IndianHindus. A prominent Indianscientist had asted nearly todeath to protest the project.

As part o the decision, thegovernment has created Indias

rst dam- ree zone in the eco-logically sensitive area, throughwhich the river will fow reely

or 135 kilometers.The ate o the 600 MW proj-

ect had been hanging in balanceor the past ew years with the

government rst deciding tosuspend the work, and thenpartially resuming construction,citing huge nancial costs it hadalready incurred on the project.

Two other large damsproposed by the state govern-ment or the Bhagirathi hadalready been scrapped by thegovernment.

Dams flling with siltSedimentation o dams is agrowing problem, resulting

in poor per ormance, loss o water storage and hydropowerproduction, and potential sa etyproblems including greater risko fooding. According to damsedimentation expert GerritBasson, by 2006, 35% o thetotal storage capacity or hy-dropower reservoirs had been

lled with sediment. By 2050its expected to rise to 70%. Fornon-hydro dams, in 2006, 33%o the available capacity was

lled with sediment, rising to

a predicted 62% by 2050. Thetotal yearly cost o this problemis about US$17 billion, accord-ing to Basson. Climate changecould speed up the rate o sedimentation.

Water or sturgeonThe latest e ort to save North

Americas largest reshwatersh rom extinction began in

June, when water was spilledover Montanas Libby Dam toencourage the wild KootenaiRiver white sturgeon to spawn

or the rst time in more than

three decades.The ancient sturgeon, atoothless sh rom the days o dinosaurs, can reach 19 eetlong and top 1,000 pounds.It takes 20-30 years or whitesturgeon to mature and repro-duce. Be ore Libby Dam wasbuilt in 1974, the river sup-ported an estimated 10,000Kootenai sturgeon. Fewer than500 mature adults remain. Bi-ologists say the wild sh couldbecome extinct within a decade

without help.This year, the dam spilledadded water or a week.Drought made or smaller spillsthan hoped, and only seven

sh made it to the spawninggrounds in Idaho. Spills areplanned again or the nexttwo years.

Most o the 24 specieso sturgeon worldwide arethreatened with extinction. Theplan to save the Kootenai shcame out o a 2008 settlement

with the Center or BiologicalDiversity.

Global plan orgreen energy Senior o cials rom 24 nations,which collectively account or70% o global emissions, agreedto a clean energy program thatcould eliminate the need ormore than 500 mid-sized powerplants around the world over

the next 20 years.The program will work to

bring super-e cient homeappliances to market, reducethe energy use o large build-ings, support deployment o clean lanterns in developingcountries, and create a globalatlas o wind and solar capac-ity and help train workers inthese elds.

Clean energy potential in South A rica A ricas biggest energy user, South A rica, should stop binging oncoal and adopt renewable energy now, say two big environmentalgroups. The local chapters o WWF and Greenpeace recently re-leased reports urging aster adoption o clean energy sources.

The WWF study says that hal o South A ricas electricity gen-eration could come rom renewable energy sources by 2030. Thegroup also devised a new tool the ree, downloadable sustainablenational accessible power planning (Snapp) tool to allow or themodelling o di erent energy scenarios.

Greenpeace is also pushing or cleaner energy production inSouth A rica. The group is calling or a minimum o 36% o thecountrys electricity to come rom renewable energy sources by2030, and a big increase in energy e ciency, which they estimatecould cut electricity use by 30%. Greenpeace estimates that78,000 green jobs could be created with a drive to adopt renew-ables and e ciencies.

A University o Cape Town researcher recently ound that windpower could provide an unexpected 35% o South A ricas electric-ity. His study states that almost hal o the nation had enough windto be considered a good" supply and that sizeable inland regionswere an excellent" resource.

The study says that wind energy is now cheaper than coal:Eskoms latest coal- red power station, Kusile, will produce powercosting about R30m per megawatt o installed capacity. Winddevelopers in SA are working at a ar lower cost: R20m-R25m permegawatt o installed capacity.

South A rica has been slow to adopt renewables, but is nallytaking some steps toward energy e ciency. For example, aplan to expand the use o solar water heaters intends to install450,000 systems in the next three years. And the national utilityEskom is also in the midst o a door-to-door roll-out o energy-saving compact fuorescent lamps (CFLs). Since the programstarted in 2003, more than 40 million CFLs have been installed,saving 1,759 MW. Yet Eskoms own estimates show potential ortens o thousands o megawatts in e ciency savings.

South A rican high school students install solar panels on their schoolsroo . Photo: Nicolas Fojtu/Greenpeace



But the program alsoincludes a Sustainable Develop-ment o Hydropower Initiative spearheaded by the dam-building nations Brazil, France,Mexico and Norway. The groupsays its rst action will be toinventory a river basin in an

A rican country or potentialhydropower resources. Were

guessing it wont ocus onmicro-hydro.

Sun-powered waterheating or KenyaKenya has made it mandatory

or all new buildings in urbanareas to include solar waterheaters, as part o a new nation-wide push to reduce electricityuse. The Energy RegulatoryCommission estimates that wa-

ter heating accounts or about25% o electricity consumed byhouseholds.

China water projectrelocation beginsChina has begun its biggestrelocation program since ThreeGorges Dam, with 330,000 resi-dents to be resettled by 2014.The rst 500 villagers weremoved in mid-August; a total o

60,000 people will be relocatedby the end o September, ac-cording to the Chinese govern-ment. The controversial South-North Water Diversion Projectwill siphon water rom theYangtze River to serve drought-prone cities like Beijing andTianjin, to curb over-withdrawalo groundwater, and to supplymore water to industry.

We elt sorrow when thewhole village gathered to haveour last dinner in our home-

town together, one resettlerwas quoted as saying.

The massive diversionproject, expected to cost US$62billion, will eature thousandso kilometers o canals, and isexpected to worsen pollutionproblems on the Yangtze problems that have worsenedsince the construction o theThree Gorges Dam.(Read our new report onthis projects resettlement:

www.internationalrivers.org.)

Hoover Dam reservoirshrinkingHoover Dams Lake Mead, theenormous reservoir o ColoradoRiver water that supplies waterto Arizona, Nevada, Cali orniaand New Mexico, has shrunk tohistoric low levels. Nearly ull in1999, Mead is now at 40% ca-pacity, and continues to shrinkby the day. Water rationing maybe on the horizon or Las Vegas,Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Its not likely to get betterany time soon. According toRichard Seager, a climate sci-entist at Columbia UniversitysLamont-Doherty Earth Obser-

vatory, the southwestern USmay experience a permanentdrought with impacts similarto the Dust Bowl o the 1930s.

The Southwests chronicoveruse o Colorado River waterbegan in 1922, when the Colora-do River Compact overestimatedfow by as much as a ew millionacre- eet. Over the past decade,the Southwest has su ered thesharpest temperature increaseon the continent. Various stud-ies predict that climate changewill reduce the runo that eedsthe Colorado River anywhere

rom 6% to 45% over the nexthal -century, according to the

New York Times .

Water and gasdont mix The Arizona-based Center orBiological Diversity is suing twoUS government agencies ortheir approval o a natural gaspipeline across our Westernstates. The group says the 678-mile Ruby pipeline will harmendangered sh species.

The suit challenges decisionsby the Bureau o Land Manage-ment and US Fish and Wildli eService that allow constructiono the pipeline across more than1,000 rivers and streams.

The Ruby Pipeline willcause severe damage to riversand streams, sensitive habitats

or a host o sh and wildli especies and some o the mostpristine lands in western North

America, said Noah Greenwald,program director at the center.

Australiaspower ul sur Two oceanographers rom

Australias national scienceagency have calculated that

Australia could meet much o its energy needs rom waveenergy alone. Australias pres-ent-day electricity consumptionis 130,000 gigawatt-hours/year.The scientists show that i 10%o the near-shore wave energyavailable along Australias south-ern coastline could be con-

verted into electricity, hal o thecountrys present-day electricityconsumption would be met.

Australia has committedto reducing greenhouse gasemissions by 60% o year 2000levels by 2050. Convert 10%o available wave energy rom a1,000-km stretch in this area toelectricity, the lead scientistsaid, and the quota could beachieved by wave energy alone.

The World Energy Councilhas identi ed Australia as one o the worlds most promising sites

or wave-energy generation.

Unplugged damsin EthiopiaDespite having nine ulldams generating more thanenough electricity to meetnational needs, Ethiopia stillsu ers rom regular power in-terruptions, particularly duringpeak hours, reports the Addis

Fortune . The interruptionsare largely due to the ageing,inadequate, outdated transmis-sion lines.

For example, Tana Beles Ethiopias largest operating hy-dropower dam was inauguratedin May 2010, yet the power itis generating is not reaching itsintended recipients. The Ethio-pian Electric Power Corporation(EEPCo) has yet to nish thepower lines that connect it tothe national grid. Critics worrythat EEPCos current build-ing spree o new power plants,which includes the controversialGibe 3 Dam, could worsen thetransmission-line backlog.

Bushmen denied water rightsA Botswanajudge has ruled

that Bushmenin the CentralKalahari GameReserve are notallowed to drillwells, givingthem no rightto water in ahot, arid land.The decision

orces themto walk at least 40 km (25 miles) to etch water. TheBotswana government has been trying to orce theBushmen out o the Kalahari ever since diamonds werediscovered there in the 1980s.

Tourists to the reserve staying at Wilderness Sa a-ris new lodge will enjoy use o a swimming pool andbar, while Gem Diamonds planned mine in the reservecan use all the water it needs on condition none isgiven to the Bushmen, states Survival International.The government has also drilled boreholes to attractwildli e to posh sa ari camps.

Bushman spokesman Jumanda Gakelebone said,I we dont have water, how are we expected to live?

Xoroxloo Duxee died o dehydration a terthe Bushmens water borehole was disabled.Photo: Sur i al


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Li es in the balanceRivers, foodplains and deltas eed hundreds o millions o peopleby sustaining sheries, crops, and grazing land. As the UN Mil-lennium Ecosystem Assessment has ound,foodplains are among the most productive eco-systems on Earth. Rivers and foodplains alsonurture riverine and mangrove orests, rechargegroundwater resources, and provide the silt thatbuilds deltas.

Today, more than 50,000 large dams blockthe arteries o the planet. They have stopped

sh rom migrating, withheld nutrients and wa-ter rom foodplains, dried up wells and riverine

orests, and le t deltas exposed to saltwaterintrusion and erosion.

The new report presents numerous casestudies o these impacts. A ter the Tucurui Damwas built on the Tocantins in Brazil, the shcatch immediately ell by 60%, a ecting tenso thousands o people. The sh yields in thewetlands o Cameroons Logone River ell by 90% a ter the MagaDam was built. Similar impacts have been documented or dams on

Ghanas Volta, Thailands Mun and West A ricas Senegal rivers. An estimated 40-80 million people have been displaced bydams. Reservoir re ugees are usually entitled to compensation ortheir losses (though in ar too many instances they do not get whatthey need to restore their lives). Most downstream-impacted peo-ple dont have any such rights. The people who were displaced bythe World Banks Tarbela Dam reservoir in Pakistan received newhomes and some nancial compensation. Yet the people who losttheir homes to the sea because o the dams downstream impactscannot claim any compensation under Pakistans laws or the WorldBanks sa eguard policies. The Bank argues that the degradation o the Indus Delta is part o the bargain struck in order to supportlarge numbers o people in the Indus Basin.

Even i you subscribe to the Banks argument that some people

have to su er so that others can prosper, it is dishonest or theBank and dam builders to ignore the impacts o their dam projectson people living downstream.

Even without considering the cost o building a dam, theeconomic value o foodplains may be higher than the value o irrigated land. Richter and his team ound that the downstreamimpacts o dams on ood production on foodplains can outweightheir supposed agricultural and sheries bene ts. On average,

sheries in large reservoirs are 2-3 times less productive thanriverine sheries. In addition, dams can result in disruption,hunger and loss o livelihoods or shing communities hundredso kilometers away.

The authors argue that a sizeable proportion o the humanpopulation is being ed by the natural productivity o river ecosys-

tems ... it does not make sense to continue to damage these naturalli e-support systems when ar less destructive approaches to damdevelopment are readily available.

Way ForwardThe authors put orward a series o practical recommendationsthat could help reduce the downstream impacts o dams. Theymake the case or an integrated planning approach to whole riverbasins, to prevent dams rom being built in the wrong places.Integrated river basin planning takes social, environmental andeconomic costs and bene ts into account, and includes the evalua-tion o rivers current bene ts through participatory assessments.

The authors also call or dam design and operational plans thatstrike an optimum balance between economic, social and envi-ronmental bene ts or example, through providing adequate

environmental fows which are continuouslymonitored and adapted.

A success ul example o the authors ap-proach is the relicensing agreement between apower company, the Penobscot Indian Nationand environmental NGOs regarding hydro-power plants on the Penobscot River in theNortheastern US. Under this agreement, twodams will be removed and the sh passageon another dam was improved. Even so, thetotal power generation rom the dams on theriver will be maintained or slightly increasedthrough the rehabilitation o the remainingpower plants.

We at International Rivers believe itis morally unacceptable to sacri ice theinterests o one population group or the

bene it o another in a supposed bargain s truck by power-ul elites. Like other a ected people, downstream-impacted

communities must be taken into account, and have the right toparticipate in the decision-making process over projects thata ect them. And i indeed a dam is built a ter such a process,downstream a ected people should be entitled to ull compen-sation or their losses. l

Lost in Developments Shadow: The Downstream HumanConsequences o Dams is available at www.internationalri ers.org/en/node/5571

Do n v continued from page 1

1 WoRld RIVeRS ReVIeW S pt mb r 2010

India and Pakistan disagree o er damIndias plans to build a hydroelectric dam on the Kis-hanganga River, a tributary o the Indus, has sparkedlegal action rom Pakistan, which says the projectviolates the Indus Water Treaty.

The US$800 million project would redirect waterthat is used or agricultural production in Pakistan togenerate 330 megawatts o energy in India. The riverwas one o three Himalayan rivers awarded to Paki-stan or unlimited use under the 1960 treaty.

There are currently more than 30 other Indian hydrodams on the Indus at varying degrees o development,all o which have been challenged by Pakistan.

In the past 30 years, per-capita water access inPakistan has allen by hal , according to the WoodrowWilson International Center or Scholars. India blamesPakistans water scarcity on climate change and poorwater management, while Pakistan claims Indiashydropower plans are worsening existing regionalproblems.

In August, it was reported that a World Bank media-tion e ort ailed to resolve the dispute. Workers build-ing a diversion tunnel or the project also reportedlyle t the dam site in early August due to local protestsagainst the project.

It does not makesense to continue

to damage ri ersnatural li e-supportsystems when ar

less destructi eapproaches to dam

de elopment arereadily a ailable.



po continued from page 9

roughly a doubling o water produc tivity by 2025 to satis y humanneeds while sustaining natures li e-support systems. Fortunately,opportunities to get more bene t per drop abound through greaterinvestments in conservation, e ciency, recycling, and reuse, as wellas through shi ts in what is produced where and when.

Water or FoodFeeding the world is a very water-intensive enterprise. It takes

about 3,000 liters o water to meet a persons daily dietary needs.In the United States, with its high consumption o meat (espe-cially grain- ed bee ), the average diet requires some 5,000 literso water per day. Under some very conservative assumptions, itcould take as much water as the annual fow o 73 Colorado Riversto meet the worlds dietary needs in 2025.

Once again, the search or solutions needs to begin with a re ram-ing o the question. Instead o asking where we can nd 73 ColoradoRivers worth o water, the question is: How do we provide healthydiets or 8 billion people without going deeper into water debt?

There are many ways we can grow more ood or the worldwith less water. Here are a ew examples.

Irrigate more e fciently: For the past two centuries, societ-ies have ocused on expanding irrigation as a key to raising crop

production. Today, much o the water withdrawn or arming neverbene ts a crop. Some o it seeps back into aqui ers or nearbystreams, while some evaporates back to the atmosphere. Thereare many ways to reduce the waste: Irrigation can be scheduled tobetter match crop water needs, or example, or drip irrigation canbe used to curb evaporation losses. Reducing irrigation demandsby even 10% could ree up enough water to meet the new urbanand industrial demands anticipated or 2025.

Boost yields on rain- ed lands: By one estimate, 75% o theworlds additional ood needs could be met by increasing harvestson low-yield arms to 80% o what high-yield arms achieve oncomparable land. Most o this potential is in rain- ed areas, and itsachievable through small-scale technologies and improved eldmethods including, or example, capturing and storing local rain-

water to apply to crops via low-cost irrigation systems. Becausethe majority o the worlds poor and hungry live on rain- ed armsin South Asia and sub-Saharan A rica, raising the arms productiv-ity would directly boost ood security and incomes.

Choose less water-intensive diets: Foods vary greatly bothin the amount o water they take to produce and in the amount o nutrition they provide. It can take ve times more water to supply10 grams o protein rom bee than rom rice, or example, andnearly 20 times more water to supply 500 calories rom bee than

rom rice. I all US residents reduced their consumption o animalproducts by hal , the nations total dietary water requirement in2025 would drop by 261 billion cubic meters per year, a savingsequal to the annual fow o 14 Colorado Rivers.

One o the biggest untapped potentials or smarter water

management in all types o enterprises lies in more creative useo in ormation technologies: meters, sensors, controllers, comput-ers, and even cell phones. In Ugandan villages, armers lackingcomputers are getting access to the wealth o in ormation on theInternet by calling their questions in to a ree telephone hotlinecalled Question Box. The operators, who speak the local language,search or the answers and call the armers back. A project o Open Mind, a Cali ornia-based nonpro t, Question Box enablespoor armers, whose only communication device may be a villagephone, to connect to the wired world or in ormation on cropprices, weather orecasts, plant diseases, and more.

The potential uses o in ormation technology to enable smarterwater decisions are extensive and have only begun to be tapped.

Using GIS (geographic in ormation system) technology, or ex-ample, the World Wildli e Fund (WWF) recently identi ed morethan 6,000 traditional water tanks (small reservoirs to capturerain all or runo ) in a single sub-watershed in western India.WWF determined that i the tanks were restored to capture just15-20% o local rain all, they could hold some 1.74 billion cubicmeters o water enough to expand irrigated area in the region by50% and at a cost per hectare just one- ourth that o an irrigation

dam-and-diversion project proposed or the region.

Resetting the SignalsMost o the worlds water shortages have arisen because the poli-cies and rules that motivate decisions about water have encour-aged ine ciency and misallocation rather than conservation andwise use. Without big dams and river diversions subsidized bytaxpayers, or example, rivers and streams in the western UnitedStates would not be so severely depleted today. And withoutlow, fat rates or electricity, Indias groundwater would not be soseverely over-pumped.

Allowing markets to do what they can do well send a pricesignal about waters value is critical or encouraging investmentsin water e ciency and more sensible uses o water. Most gov-

ernments in rich and poor countries alike, however, continue tosend the wrong signal by heavily subsidizing water, especially orirrigation, the biggest consumer. While better pricing is essential,it doesnt automatically account or the many important bene tso rivers, lakes, wetlands, and streams that are not recognized inthe marketplace. It is the job o governments, as custodians o thepublic trust in water, to protect these important but o ten unrec-ognized values, and it is the job o citizens to demand that theirelected o cials get busy cra ting creative solutions

Current pricing and policy signals are deeply misaligned withthe realities o our water predicament, but this means that thereare untold opportunities or improvement. For example, a cap ongroundwater pumping rom the Edwards Aqui er in south-centralTexas has motivated armers, businesses, and citizens to conserve.

San Antonio has cut its per capita water use by more than 40%, toone o the lowest levels o any western US city.It is critical that policy-makers begin to grapple with the in-

convenient truth that supplying water takes energy and supplyingenergy takes water. Energy and water are tightly entwined, and alltoo o ten public policies to solve one problem simply make theother one worse. For example, the 2007 mandate o the US Con-gress to produce 15 billion gallons o corn ethanol a year by 2015would annually require an estimated six trillion liters o additionalirrigation water a volume exceeding the annual water withdraw-als o the state o Iowa. Even solar power creates a demand orwater, especially some o the big solar-thermal power plants slated

or the sunny Southwest. Clearly any action we take to build localrenewable energy sources must be care ul not to add additional

strain to our already-stressed rivers and aqui ers.The win-win o the water-energy nexus, o course, is that sav-

ing water saves energy, and saving energy saves water. The more acommunity lives on water, energy, and ood produced locally, themore options arise or solving multiple problems simultaneously,building resilience through resource ulness, and preparing or

uture uncertainties. l

Sandra Postel directs the Global Water Policy Project and is a ellow o the Post Carbon Institute. She is the author o several books,including Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity, and a member o Inter- national Rivers. A longer version o this article, including re erences,appears in the Post-Carbon Institute Reader.


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B razilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva signed an energyagreement with Peruvian President Alan Garcia in June thatincludes building six hydroelectric dams in the Peruvian Ama-zon. The plan, expected to cost more than US$15 billion, would supplymore than 6,000 MW o power to Brazil,

The projects were designed by the Brazilian electric utility Eletro-brs in conjunction with Brazilian multinational construction giantsOdebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez, all o which would be directlyinvolved in dam construction with unding rom the Brazilian nationaldevelopment bank, BNDES.

This accord will not guarantee clean and renewable energy orPeru. On the contrary, it will impose a series o negative environmen-

tal and social impacts such as displacement o indigenous people andde orestation in at least ve regions o Peru, putting at grave risk theuture o the Peruvian Amazon, said Mariano Castro, a lawyer with the

Peruvian Society o Environmental Rights.One o the rst projects to be built under the accord would be the

Pakitzapango Dam on the Ene River, which would impact close to17,000 Ashaninka indigenous people and threaten Otishi National Park.

The Inambari Dam on the Madre de Dios River is also on the listo dams to be built under the bilateral agreement. Inambari wouldfood more than 46,000 hectares o land, which would leave more than15,000 people without agricultural lands. The project would also foodportions o the Inter-Oceanic highway, or which Peruvians alreadypaid a massive price.

Peru does not need these dams, we have close to 50,000 MW o renewable energy potential, such as wind, solar and geothermal, thatdoes not include large dams. This deal will only bene t Brazil, and weare not going to let this happen, said Engineer Al redo Novoa Pena,the ounder o Peruvian environmental organization Pro-Naturaleza. l

B z n D p n t n p u n a zonby Monti Aguirre

2150 Allston Way, Suite 300Berkeley, CA 94704-1378 USA

internationalri ers.org

Ruth Buendia is leading the Ashaninka people in ghting PakitzapangoDam. Photo: Jonathan McLeod

Volunteer of the Month Jocie Bartlett is an InternationalRivers Ambassador. She beganvolunteering in 2009 and has beenhelping make our public eventsamazing ever since. In her timewith us, she has also worked on ourPatagonia and A rica programs. Jociewas originally drawn to InternationalRivers work, she says, becauseo our e orts to strengthen civil

societies and aciliate the cultivationo agency within disempoweredcommunities. She is currentlypursuing a Masters Degree at theCali ornia Institute o Integral Studiesin San Francisco.

Jocie Bartlett

world rivers review: focus on rivers, water and climate - september 2010

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