Patrick D. MurphyDepartment of EnglishUniversity of Central Florida

Damning Damming Modernity: The Destructive

Role of Megadams

Water is required for everything from the life of the human body to the irrigation of crops, to the half a million gallons of water per minute that must flow to cool nuclear power plants.

Only 2.5% fresh water most of that locked up in

icecaps and glaciers

Only 1% of the earth's water is available for human use.

Hoover Dam on the Colorado River

Himalayan Dam Projects , existing and proposed in Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan

Massive plans are underway in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan to build several hundred dams in the region, with over 150,000 Megawatts (MW) of additional capacity proposed in the next 20 years in the four countries. If all the planned capacity expansion materialises, the Himalayan region could possibly have the highest concentration of dams in the world.

-- Mountains of Concrete: Dam Building in the Himalayas, International Rivers, 2008

Climate Change Impact on Himalayan Rivers

The impact of global warming is already being felt much more in the Himalayas than in other parts of the world. This is resulting in the accelerated melting of glaciers and the depletion of the massive water store of the region. . . . . The impact of climate change will be aggravated by the construction of hundreds of dams. As glaciers melt, water in the rivers will rise, and dams will be subjected to much higher flows, raising concerns of dam safety, increased flooding and submergence.With the subsequent depletion of glaciers there will be much lower annual flows, affecting the performance of such huge investments. Climate change will also increase the threats ofGlacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and possible cascading failures of downstream dams – Mountains of Concrete

Hoover Dam Failing to Fulfill Promise

The demand for water from the Colorado River Basin has now far outstripped supply, and the problem's only getting worse as temperatures rise and the water table is shrinking. Thanks to a decade-long drought, the Lake Mead reservoir in Nevada is about 120 feet below its high-water mark (and if it dips another 42 feet, the dam will have to shut off and will no longer be able to provide hydroelectric power for the region). … When the Hoover Dam was originally proposed in 1922, governors from the seven states in the Colorado Basin were told that the new reservoir would provide enough water to meet all their needs and allow growth without end. -- Bradford Plummer, July 9, 2010

Don Sahong Dam, LaosPlanned to be built to sell electricity to Thailand

Bakun Dam on Sarawak Island

Sarawak Proposed Dam Projects

Roghun Dam, TajikistanBegun in Soviet Era

Arundhati Roy

• The Greater Common Good

• Power Politics

Narmada River Dams Planned

Tibet: The Water Tower of Asia

Assama megadam development proposals area

Two Major rivers of Central Asia

Dams in Kashmir Indian Dams

on RightBaglihar Dam on

Chenab River

New Chinese Dams on the northern Mekong, including the world’s tallest dam under

construction, the Xiaowan.

Senge-Ali DamKeeping the users of Indus River water uninformed, China has built a dam at catchment area of the river in Tibet at Senge-Ali.

Alice Albinia, “All the water that drains from these mountains, I remember, is currently being stopped by the new dam at Senge-Ali,” she wrote.

DIMDiscrete Incident Mentality

80,000 dams of varying sizes in the United States

85% of them are fifty years old or older.

One-third of these are estimated to be at high risk of failure

Aswan High Dam

Tarbela Dam, Pakistan

Completed in 1976, Tarbela Dam was assumed to have a lifespan until 2030. However, given that over 6 billion tons of sediment (sand, silt and mud) have already accumulated in the first twenty-five years, it is very possible that Tarbela Dam may become ineffective over a shorter than predicted period of time.

Salinization inhibits production of one-fifth of all irrigated cropland globally