Nepal

What Do You Know?

What Should You Know?

World's Most Dangerous Roads - Nepal (2011) [BBC] - YouTube

Nepal - Once is not enough - YouTube

A Day In The Life of Puma, Nepal, a Remote Village in the Himalayan Mountains - YouTube

Development Indicator

Statistic

Birth rate

Death rate

Life expectancy

Infant mortality

Adult literacy

GDP/GNI per capita

Food intake

Doctors

Internet Access

Urban Population

Level of Development

As we look through the images of the Himalayas, note down the name of any identifies locations for our next mapping activity.

Generating Electricity Using Rivers Hydroelectic Power - How it

Works - YouTube

Hoover Dam, USA

Hydro PowerEnergy harnessed from the power of falling water, has been used around the world for thousands of years.

Hydropower now constitutes 20% of electricity generated around the world.

How Hydroelectricity WorksWater is used to run an electricity-generating turbine.

• Dams must be built in order to create a source of falling water, and thus hydropower.

• Gravity plays an important role in the process, dams are located at points where a river drops in elevation.

• Engineers can control the amount of water that flows through the dam, thereby altering the rate of electricity production.

Geographical Magazine Article

Advantages• Requires no fuel to run other than water, which is naturally recycled and

replenished through rainfall. As a result, the viability of hydroelectricity is not subject to variations in fuel cost, production and availability.

• The constant supply of water not only solves the fuel problem, it also allows for flexibility and control in levels of electricity production. Whereas solar and wind energy generators are at the mercy of fluctuations in their natural power sources—cloudy or calm days, respectively—hydroelectric plants have a steady flow of water that can even be adjusted in order to provide more power at peak times.

• Once they come online, hydroelectric power plants can be mostly automated and require very little attention or maintenance. Indeed, they have proven to be quite long-lasting, with some functioning well past the 50-year mark.

• Hydroelectric power is also the cheapest method of electricity production, largely because of the reasons described above. Hydroelectric plants require minimal resources after their initial construction and none at all to acquire and process energy, which means that they are incredibly efficient to operate.

Disadvantages• Only works in specific locations. They must be built on a river, of

course, and the site must provide a suitable drop in elevation to run the generator.

• Initial construction costs certainly are extremely expensive, especially if there is not already an existing dam in place. In addition to building the dam, electric generators and transmission lines must also be built.

• Floods in particular can cause serious problems for a dam, as they can exert much more pressure on the dam than it is intended to withstand.

• HEP sites still produce emissions. This is not due to the electricity generation itself. Rather, the construction of a plant causes flooding in the nearby area, which often kills many plants and trees and leads to the release of methane as they decompose.

• This also leads to loss of biodiversity, another major threat to our environment.

Controversy & HEP

In developing nations, the enormous potential of hydroelectric power is being weighed against the potential environmental impacts of new hydroelectric installations.

There has been heated debate around new dams in Brazil, Chile, and Laos, among other countries, as environmentalists and downstream residents voice their concerns over the potential consequences—both known and unknown.

Issues & Links• Work on Himalayas hydroelectric dam stopped after scientist on hunger

strike against the project almost dies | Environment | guardian.co.uk • Advantages of dam building?• Problems with dam building?

Home | International RiversWho are this organisation?Summarise their ‘mission’. What are their concerns about potential developments in the Himalayas? (use

map to select area – right of page)

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