Daniel Meltzer
Energy and Environmental Security
Dr. Parthemore
18 November 2017
Hydroelectric Dams (title needs to be changed)
There are many benefits to countries obtaining energy from the use of hydroelectric dams. Since these dams are fueled by water, there is no pollution into the surrounding areas as there would be from energy sources like coal, oil, or even natural gas. Additional benefits that can be derived from the use of hydroelectric power, is that it is a renewable resource that’s only requirement is the continued flow of water through the power generating turbines. According to the United States Department of Energy, in addition to several other benefits which mirror the above, hydroelectric power can offer some of the following:
• “because of the reservoirs of water that are created after a dam is built, there is a surplus of water that offers both recreational benefits to the public such as boating, swimming and fishing.”
• “since hydroelectric dams rely solely upon the flow of water to create power, it is comparatively easy for them to generate power- needing only to open their control gates to quickly reach maximum generation capabilities. This, as the Department of Energy points out, can allow dams to provide essential back-up power during major electricity outages or disruptions.1”
Food Security and River Population
While it is true that there are many benefits both economically and environmentally to countries that build dams, I thought that it would be interesting to do a brief look into some of the potential downsides that come with the construction of dams- whether it be a potential impact on the local environment, or a larger security concern such as that that stems from the Mosul dam. One of the first things that I wanted to focus on was looking at the possible environmental impacts of the water reservoirs that form when dams are built.
In a study called Dam nation: A geographic census of American dams and their large-scale hydrologic impacts, the author William L. Graf discusses how the creation of water reservoirs from the building of dams can have a dramatic impact on river flow and discharge. Particularly as it impacts the United States, Graf mentions how there it is possible that dams can influence river discharge much more than even climate change is expected to in the coming years.2 He states that while there are climate change models that predict an almost 15-20% change in annual water yield, many dams that already exist have retention capacities that almost exceed any current statistics for runoff, and have complete control of downstream water movement.
This could be considered as a very interesting side effect of the creation of any type of dam. While the influence that a dam has over the flow of water is obvious in the nature of the type of structure that a dam is, often there isn’t a lot of discourse into the repercussions that this can have on both the environment and global relations. As Graf discussed in his article, one such impact that can be seen, is the influence that occurs on food security in regions down stream of any hydroelectric dam location. One such example of this is the Dom Sahong Dam in Laos, which is being built along the Mekong river. After its creation, it is hoped that this dam in conjunction with several others along the river will be able to boost the amount of power being generated by South East Asia by an estimated 25%. At the same time, this and several other under construction/planned dams are expected to have a terrible impact on local fisheries. This issue brings up a very important concept of a region being able to balance between being able to provide food security for locals, while at the same time also being able to provide a reliable source of energy. There needs to be an accurate analysis of the cost benefits (at least when looking at the creation of the Dom Sahong dam) and very specifically how much total fishery loss can the locals sustain while still meeting their daily requirements for foods, and energy consumption.
The question that this poses, is how exactly would this happen to the local fisheries? The article states that it could “diminish essential flood pulses and decimate fisheries and riverside gardens that are dependent on variable flows and sediment.3” This problem can be traced back to the very nature of how dams work and generate power. As mentioned previously, unlike other forms of energy, dams have the ability to very quickly spin up to their maximum power generation capability. This is done using flood gates controlling the velocity and amount of water flowing through the dam. Like coal powered plants, hydroelectric dams operate on the principle of generating electricity from a moving turbine, however, instead of using steam, dams use the flow of water.
The United States Geological Survey sums up the way hydroelectric dams work the best. In their description, they state that “the dam stores lots of water behind it in the reservoir. Near the bottom of the dam wall there is the water intake. Gravity causes it to fall through the penstock inside the dam. At the end of the penstock there is a turbine propeller, which is turned by the moving water. Additionally because there is not a constant demand for electricity, in times when there are lulls in usage, dams will often pump water back up the dam to refill the reservoir for the next surge.5
All of this goes back to the situation of how easy it is for dams to disrupt the flow of water down stream of their reservoirs. One of the key factors of maintaining a healthy stock of fish in the river is the surges of water that come with the seasons (whether it be melting of ice, or large amounts of rain). These all serve as important triggers for the fish causing them either to move up and down the stream or to cue spawning. Additionally, despite arguments to the contrary, according the article, in South East Asia, it has been shown that methods taken to help local aquatic life overcome the barrier created by the dams have proven to be almost completely ineffectual because of the sheer numbers of fish that exist in the area. So again, this will lead to a sharp decrease in fish numbers as they can no longer move to their breeding grounds., 3 By having a dam system that can created these water and sediment surges at will, it has a serious impact on the lifecycles of the local fish by artificially inducing (or reducing) the needed environmental inputs necessary for the fish to continue to breed.4
Finally, the last food security and environmental problem that comes from the establishment of these reservoirs, is how they impact other countries that are down stream of the dams. Much of the literature gave deep insight into the local repercussion caused by the dams, and it makes sense that these would also carry across the country’s borders and into the surrounding countries as well. It could be argued that the same problems that arose with the local fish populations could be seen with non-local species farther away as well.
Displaced people
Another brief point to discuss, is how the creation of dams has the ability to displace a large amount of people from its vicinity. While some of this relates to the previous section and how the alteration of water supply can have serious repercussions on food security and the population of river fauna, it also has to do with the sheer land requirements that even the smallest of dams need. The dramatic rise in water level that follows the creation of these dams can cause a couple additional problems: First off, that anyone who is currently residing within the area that the dam reservoir is supposed to be needs to relocated or be submerged with the surrounding area. In other countries such as China, these are often some of the most poor or farmers who depend directly on the land to provide food and income. In a 2007 article by the New York Times about the humanitarian impact of dam building in China, the author quotes the Prime Minister of China as saying that over the course of many years which China has constructed hydroelectric dams, it is estimated that it has displaced as much as 23 million people throughout the country.
The Three Gorges Dam, which is supposed to be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, is alone going to be responsible for the potential displacement of more than 300,000 people, and resettlement began in 1997.7 However, as a 2011 report for the George Washington University called Problems in Human Rights and Large Dams stated: “typical resettlement programmes are: often prepared late in the project cycle; under financed; devised using insufficient understanding of people’s social, cultural, economic, psychological conditions and environment in which they were located; implemented with a very short time frame, with limited objective of restoring previous income levels, and too often terminated even before all displaced people were resettled and rehabilitated., 7”
The New York Times example of the problems surrounding the creation of the Three Gorges dam is a perfect example of this and more. The article discusses how Chinese farmers were allowed the option of either moving their families to the cities or to move their farms to higher ground. However, often those farmers are either not given enough money to afford the move, or given the regions high levels of population density, often there is no place for them to go.7 As a result, villagers are often forced into small overpopulated areas that do not have enough resources to support those that reside there. This has led to serious damage of the environment as locals cleared land to plant their crops, which in turn led to the erosion of the surrounding hills.8
Secondly, another consequence of forced resettlement can be seen in India as a result of the damming of the Narmada river. In particular with this instance, forced relocation of individuals residing in the dam area led to the dissolution of many small communities. It also lead to people from three different states, each with their own languages and dialects, culinary habits and dress, are thrown together which causes the possibility for many of those that have been resettled to face hostility from their host communities. Additionally as with those relocated from the Three Gorges dam, new lands can often be barren, rocky, or even waterlogged, making farming either very difficult or near impossible.9
While not an across the board threat to human life like some of these other consequences of relocation, it was interesting to read in the Human Rights & Environmental Case Study from George Washington University about the social repercussions for some of the relocated in India. The article mentions a village called Sulgaon near where the Maheshwar dam is to be constructed. In an interview in the article, it is mentioned how it is becoming increasingly difficult to find brides for eligible boys because no one wants to place any value in a family with a home that is about to be destroyed.9 Also since many boys grow up to help their fathers on the family farm and so get little in the way of an education, the loss of livelihood and culture makes it extremely hard for these families to survive.9, 10
Lastly there are the direct health impacts of the dams (sickness). Through articles made available through the World Health Organization’s website, it appears that there are many vectors stemming from the creation of dams through which the local population can become sick. In the interest of brevity, these have been narrowed down to those that stem from the creation of the dam reservoir. Particularly in Africa, the paper talks about how “increases in the prevalence of schistosomiasis, malaria, encephalitis, hemorrhagic fevers, gastroenteritis, intestinal parasites, and filariasis (including onchocerciasis and bancroftosis) have been documented after dam and irrigation projects. The last two sections are best summed up in the following chart from the March 1999 Environmental Impact Assessment Review:
Impact Area
Effect of Dam
Health Impact
Upstream catchment and river
Loss of biodiversity, increased agriculture, sedimentation and flooding, changes in river flow regime
Changes in flood security, water-related diseases, difficulties with transportation and access to health facilities
Reservoir area
Inundation of land, presence of large manmade reservoir, pollution, changes in mineral content, decaying organic material, pollution
Involuntary resettlement, social disruption, vector-borne diseases, water-related diseases, reservoir-induced seismicity
Downstream river
Lower water levels, poor water quality, lack of seasonal variation, loss of biodiversity
Food security affected on flood plains and estuaries (farming and fishing), water-related diseases, dam failure and flooding
Irrigation areas
Increased water availability and agriculture, water weeds, changes in flow and mineral content, pollution
Changes in food security, vector-borne and water-related diseases
Construction activities
Migration, informal settlement, sex work, road traffic increase, hazardous construction
Water-related diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, accidents and occupational injuries
Resettlement areas
Social disruption, pollution, pressure on natural resources
Communicable diseases, violence and injury, water-related disease, loss of food security
Country/regional/global
Reduced fuel imports, improved exports, loss of biodiversity, reallocation of funding, sustainability
Macro-economic impacts on health, inequitable allocation of revenue, health impacts of climate change
Security Threats
The final danger that dams can pose, is that of a security threat either by the value they hold as a strategic target in combat, or due to faulty construction. One of the prime examples for this is the Mosul Dam in Iraq. At 3.4 kilometers long, the Mosul dam is not only one of the largest dams in all of Iraq, but it is also the fourth largest in the Middle East. The Mosul dam has long been known to be an unstable structure, having been built on soft ground made up of gypsum, anhydrite, and karstic limestone that started eroding once the reservoir began to be filled.11 This ground instability has led to the creation of sinkholes- some as large as 20 meters, beneath the dam undermining its structural stability, and necessitating that the Iraqi government bring in a foreign company to come in to fill the sinkholes. Further compounding the problem, since the US invasion of Iraq the country has been plagued by conflict, culminating in the terror group ISIS taking over the dam in 2014.11
Despite its quick recapture, the threat surrounding the dam raised serious concerns because during the ISIS occupation, they destroyed all the equipment being used to keep the dam from collapsing. Also if they decided to use the dam as a weapon, it could release a wave of water potentially destroying the entire surrounding area. In a study done by the European Commission’s Science Center, it was determined that if just is 26% of the dam were to be destroyed while the water level in the reservoir was at its highest, the resulting wave could be as much as in places 25 meters high, and could arrive in Mosul in just under two hours. In three and a half days, Baghdad would be struck with water at a height of 8 meters.11, 12 The destruction of the Mosul dam could quite possibly destroy all infrastructure for up to 700 kilometers along the Tigris river, and directly displace or kill almost 500,000 people.11,
While the dam currently remains intact, these issues raise the point of just how sensitive dams can be and what types of security impacts they can have on a country-particularly one that is unstable. From the readings, it seems that often dams are constructed in areas with little domestic energy resources themselves in an attempt to decrease their reliance upon other countries; however, at the same time it seems that these same countries are also sometimes at risk for domestic grown conflict. As shown above the potential destructive power behind a dam is not something to be taken lightly and while there are many benefits to having a dam to provide power. Thorough research into local geography and potential security risk should be done before construction. Given the examples above that could result from the release of even a fraction of the 11 billion cubic-meters of water behind the Mosul dam, one could only imagine what could happen if a dam say if the Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe, with a capacity of 185 billion cubic meters of water were to be breached, or the Daniel Johnson dam in Canada, with a capacity of 139.8 billion cubic meters.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the creation of hydroelectric dams can provide many benefits for the countries which fund their creation and house them within their borders. Because they water as a medium to create energy, they emit almost no pollution into the surrounding areas as there would be from energy sources like coal, oil, or even natural gas. In addition they can even provide direct benefits to those that live around them- such as easier access to water, better fishing, or even alternative methods to local recreational activities.
While all these potential benefits exist, they can come at a cost as the creation of hydroelectric dams can also have serious repercussions to the surrounding populations and those countries located downstream. These repercussions can vary from the alteration of local ecologies as seen in the Mekong river, to the displacement of people which can lead to social and physical harm. Even then after all that, the creation of large dams can open up a country (particularly one with an unstable government or local violent organizations), to the possibility of serious security threats. Through all of this it is important to understand that for all the benefits touted by the global community to the virtually inexhaustible supply of energy that comes from hydroelectric dams, they should not be built without a careful study into the repercussions that could stem from their creation.