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Dams
 Photo source/John Baird |
Dams are barriers that are placed across flowing water, which divert or retard the flow of water. There are over 45,000 large dams in over 140 nations. Europe and North America have slowed or stopped dam building as favorable locations no longer exist. China, India, and South Korea still build large dams. Some dams in North America and Europe have been decommissioned and removed to return more natural flow regimes. The impounded water can create a reservoir or lake to supply water for drinking, for irrigation, or to generate electricity using hydroelectric turbines. Large dams modify river flows, fragment and transform aquatic and riparian ecosystems, may cause saltwater intrusion at the rivers mouth, threaten aquatic species, increase waterborne diseases, produce greenhouse gases, displace thousands of local residents, and alter water rights and working rules for water use. Sustainable water developers favor microdams, conservation practices, transparency, accountability, public participation, and protected local residents' rights over macroeconomic goals. |
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FEATURED ORGANIZATIONS
 SalweenWatch was formed in February 1999, and is a coalition of different organizations and NGO`s based in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, who deal with different Burma-related and environmental issues. It was set up with the primary aim... Glen Canyon Institute GCI was founded in 1996 as a charitable 501[c]3 nonprofit organization with the mission of restoring a healthy Colorado River through Glen Canyon. Leading the movement to restore this uniquely beautiful place...FEATURED RESOURCES
 An Investor's Guide to Dams, published by the WWF, provides a wide range of investors -- officials of commercial and multi-lateral development banks, government aid agencies, export credit agencies and governments -- with an overview of the benefits, costs, and risks... Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams. Entirely updated in light of the recent World Commission on Dams Report, and responding to it, this new edition of Patrick McCully's now classic study shows why large dams have become such a controversial... |
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Tags/Keywords
Dam, barrage, benefit sharing, decommissioning, displaced people, environmental management, export credit agency, externalities, flood control, greenhouse gases, impoundment, indigenous peoples, mitigation measures, multipurpose dams, performance bonds, precautionary principle, reservoir, World Commission on Dams (WCD), river basin, run-of-river dams, irrigation, domestic/commercial use, hydropower, World Bank, costs and benefits, recreation, pumped storage, small hydropower, fish migration, fish ladders, fish spawning
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