Discourse on Dams and Development: Is Hydropower a Clean Energy

Renewable energy sources are vital to fulfill the high demands of energy in the present world. The common renewable energy sources are wind, hydropower, nuclear and biomass. However, hydropower is considered the most flexible and consistent renewable energy source because it is comparatively cheaper and more available. Besides hydroelectricity production, hydropower dams can also be useful for irrigation. Though hydropower energy is considered as green energy due to its less carbon emission, still other environmental impacts of hydropower dams are many. Hydropower dams are built based on political ground. Research into the politics of building hydropower dams and environment remains underdeveloped in many ways. Thus, this paper focuses on the issues of politics of building hydropower dams and its impacts on environment. This paper has critically reviewed the extensive literature to examine the argument and counter argument. This paper argues that the building hydropower dams on international river for renewable energy has political as well as environmental impacts. Most of the literature argued that hydropower dams provide renewable energy which produces less carbon emission, but it is argued in this paper that hydropower dams have huge political and environmental impacts nationally and internationally. Displacement of the people and dispute for water distribution among countries due to the building hydropower dams are also considered to be significant for discussion in this paper. Thus, the paper critically examines the impacts and role of hydropower dams on environment, international relations and politics.

Dams are a relatively inexpensive soured of power. However, the arguably ecological destruction caused by dams make them an unsustainable source of energy. Herein, we argue that since the ecological costs from dam construction is high, alternative renewable energy sources would better attain a sustainable development strategy.

Aquatic Sciences, 2014

Human population growth, economic development, climate change, and the need to close the electricity access gap have stimulated the search for new sources of renewable energy. In response to this need, major new initiatives in hydropower development are now under way. At least 3,700 major dams, each with a capacity of more than 1 MW, are either planned or under construction, primarily in countries with emerging economies. These dams are predicted to increase the present global hydroelectricity capacity by 73 % to about 1,700 GW. Even such a dramatic expansion in hydropower capacity will be insufficient to compensate for the increasing electricity demand. Furthermore, it will only partially close the electricity gap, may not substantially reduce greenhouse gas emission (carbon dioxide and methane), and may not erase interdependencies and social conflicts. At the same time, it is certain to reduce the number of our planet's remaining free-flowing large rivers by about 21 %. Clearly, there is an urgent need to evaluate and to mitigate the social, economic, and ecological ramifications of the current boom in global dam construction. Keywords Biodiversity Á Energy Á River management Á Sustainability Á Climate change C. Zarfl and A.E. Lumsdon contributed equally to the preparation of the manuscript.

Sustainable Development, 2019

Hydroelectric power is on the rise. Both developed and emerging economies establish hydroelectric dams in order to make use of natural water resources, contribute to electrification, and supply energy to national industries. For their advocates, dams are a silver bullet combining three pillars of sustainable development that are often perceived as being in mutual conflict, namely: economic growth, social welfare and ecological sustainability. Dams are often in line with donors' funding priorities relating to low-carbon energy production and therefore attract major investments by private companies. In short, dam building is seen as a pathway to a bright and promising future, a road to modernity, progress, andto take the most prevalent prescription for a desirable futuresustainable development. At the same time, hydroelectric dam projects are often faced with large-scale protests and political contestation. National public donors and multinational funding agencies such as the World Bank have repeatedly refused or withdrawn their support for megaprojects that may bring with them adverse ecological and social impacts,

Severe Unsustainability results from the dams have an unbelievable damage on rivers and have increased dramatically the use of water resources rather than the normal rate of sustainability. The constructed dams have also the complex impact on transforming the face of a landscape and are deeply affecting the ability of local communities and ecosystems in sustaining life and food systems for humans and other fellow beings in Iran. Currently in Iran the severe trend of building dams leads to silence of the rivers that the silencing of these rivers has resulted in the construction of many ecosystems and spread of desertification in the country. In this paper we seek to compare the principle of dams constructions in Iran versus the principle of Agenda21 and prove that current trend totally contradict the principles of Agenda 21.

Global Environmental Politics, 2005

Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences

A review of scientific literature, specifically in English, was carried out to identify the main impacts generated by the construction of large dams in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas. In addition, a comparison was made between the impacts found in ex-ante studies and those found in ex-post investigations and significant differences were detected between the impacts identified in the studies before and after the construction of the projects. Thus, the interest in ecological and socioeconomic impacts, especially negative ones, predominates in the two types of studies, in contrast to the small number of investigations where the benefits of dams are evident. Finally, there are common impacts seen in almost all hydroelectric projects around the world such as the loss of economic sustenance, fertile land, jobs and physical displacement of people, among others.

Despite the numerous advantages of large dams, there is still a deep suspicion about the real, long-term benefits and costs of their construction. Land use change on a vast scale, displacement of a large population of indigenous people, loss of biodiversity and production of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as environmental, socioeconomic and cultural consequences resulting therefrom, indicate clearly the need to reconsider the growing trend of dam construction in the world. The present study was conducted to calculate the real cost of generating electricity imposed on communities and environment in order to clarify the adverse socioeconomic impacts of large dams that are often ignored due to short-term, economic benefits. Accordingly, Alborz Dam, a large dam in northern Iran, was selected as a case study to run cost-benefit analysis by SIMPACTS Software. The obtained results revealed that the total external cost of electricity generation by the hydropower dam is about 0.16 US$/kWh. In other words, the annual cost of the electricity generation by Alborz Hydropower Plant is US$ 4.8 million/year. The highest share (163 US$/MWh) belongs to the loss of agricultural production while the lowest cost (0.10 US$/MWh) is associated with the loss of life. According to the estimated values, a total amount of 1074 tons of greenhouse gas emissions is expected to be released into the air by the hydropower dam operation. It should be stated that SIMPACTS Software only considers the adverse effects of hydropower dams and there is a need to improve the capability of the software by adding the positive impacts in to the overall computations, as well.