Since the beginning of the historical era, man has been building dams. The ancient civilisations of Sumeria, Babylonia, Egypt, Ceylon and Cambodia, for example, were all justifiably famed for their irrigation works: indeed, the bunds and tanks which remain at such ancient capitals as Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, or Angkor Watt in Cambodia, still survive to bear proud witness to the engineering skills of those who constructed them. Today, however, advances in concrete technology and the development of vast earth-moving machines (the largest weighing 2,000 tons) have enabled us to build dams of a size and complexity which would have staggered the ancients.
Contents
Preface;
A Ballard of Ecological Awareness Foreword by Brent Blackwelder
Part I: Introduction
Chapter One. The Overt Reasons for Building Dams
The Pace of Construction; Plans for the Future: Dam them all? Glittering Prizes: The claimed benefits of large-scale water development projects; The Lure of Hydro-Power; The Lure of Irrigation; Playing with Water: Playing with Fire?
Part II: Before the Flood
Chapter Two. Dams and Society - The Problems of Resettlement
The Scale of Resettlement Programmes; A Record of Failure; Government Insensitivity; Lack of Compensation and Inferior Land
Chapter Three. Social and Cultural Destruction
Resistance to Resettlement; Ethnic Differences Ignored; Inappropriate Housing; Housing and the Integrity of Traditional Culture; Is better Planning Possible? The Road to the Slum
Part III: After the Flood
Chapter Four. Closing the Dam: Loss of Land and Wildlife Upstream, Loss of Silt and Fertility Downstream
Loss of Agricultural Land to Flooding; Loss of Forests to Flooding; Loss of Wildlife to Flooding; The Reduction of Fertility Downstream due to Impoundment; Loss of Silt and Coastal Erosion; Conclusion
Chapter Five. Water Losses: Exceeding Gains
Introduction; Losses to Evaporation; Loss to Transpiration: The Problem of Aquatic Weeds; Losses Due to Seepage and Over-Use of Water;
Chapter Six. The Effects of Perennial Irrigation on Pest Populations
Chapter Seven. Dams and Disease
Introduction; Malaria; Schistosomiasis; Filariasis; Onchocerciasis - River Blindness; Diseases Introduced as an Indirect Result of Water Projects; Efforts to Combat Disease
Chapter Eight. The Effects of Large-Scale Water Projects on Fisheries
Short-term Successes: Long-term Failure; Dams and the Destruction of Fisheries; Pesticide Pollution and the Destruction of Fisheries; Dams, Fishing and the Net Loss of Protein
Chapter Nine. Dams, Failures and Earthquakes
Dam Failures; Earthquakes and Dams; Dams and Earthquakes: Recent Research
Chapter Ten. The Myth of Flood Control
Flood: An Increasing Menace; The Failure of a Strategy; Deforestation, Erosion and Floods; Building on the Flood Plains; Other Reasons why Structural Controls Cannot Work; The 'Trade-Off' between Flood Control, Hydropower and Irrigation; Dealing with Floods: the Ecological Approach
Chapter Eleven. Salting the Earth: The Problem of Salinisation
The Causes of Salinisation; Irrigation and Salinisation: The Intimate Connection; The Extent of the Problem; Can Salinisation and Water-Logging be Avoided?; Why No Drainage? Salinisation: The Historical Experience; Salinity and Downstream Agriculture
Chapter Twelve. Management and Maintenance - Perennial Problems
Introduction; Management and Maintenance: A Low Priority Concern; Bureaucratic Ignorance; Lack of Accountability; The Problem of Maintenance; Co-operation and Maintenance; The Conflict between Food and Cash-Crops; The Advantages of Traditional Irrigation Systems
Chapter Thirteen. Loss of Land and Food to Plantations
The Cash Crop Economy; Cash Crops and Irrigation Projects; Pushing Peasants onto Marginal Lands; Cash Crops and the Degradation of Agricultural Land; Food for What? Cash Crops and Rising Food Prices
Chapter Fourteen. The Loss of Land and Water to Industry and Urbanisation
Introduction; The Loss of Land to Urbanisation and Industrialisation in the USA; Loss of Land to Urbanisation in the United Kingdom; Loss of Land to Industrialisation and Urbanisation in Japan; The Failure to Take Land Losses into Account; The Aswan Dam and the Loss of Agricultural Land in Egypt; Loss of Water to Industrial and Domestic Uses: The United States Experience; Egypt: Water for Food or Water for Industry?
Chapter Fifteen. Dams, Pollution and the Reduction of Food Supplies
Introduction; The Export of Hazardous Industries; The Effect of Pollution on Crop Growth; Pollution and the Reduction of Fish Yields
Chapter Sixteen. Sedimentation: The Way of All Dams
Introduction; Sedimentation Rates in Temperate Areas; Sedimentation Rates in the Tropics
Chapter Seventeen. Are These Problems Inevitable?
Part IV: The Politics of Damming
Chapter Eighteen. Social and Environmental Impact Studies
Chapter Nineteen. The Politics of Damming
Politics or Oversight? The Aswan Experience; Power-Broking, Pork Barrel and Corruption; States within States
Chapter Twenty. Fudging the Books
Cost-Benefit Studies: The Record of Falsification; Over-estimating Benefits: Under-estimating Costs
Conclusion
Part V: Traditional Irrigation: Learning from the Past
Chapter Twenty-one. The Qanats of Iran
Chapter Twenty-two. The Traditional Irrigation System of the Sonjo
Chapter Twenty-three. The Traditional Irrigation System of the Chagga
Chapter Twenty-four. Traditional Irrigation in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's Tanks; The Importance of the Tanks; Irrigation as a Way of Life; The Sustainability of the Traditional System; Deforestation: Jeopardising the Future; Land Tenure: Traditional vs. Modern; The Growth of the State and the Breakdown of the Traditional System
Chapter Twenty-five. Traditional Irrigation in Mesopotamia
Minimising the Effects of Salinisation; The El Shabana; The Earliest Historical Experience in Mesopotamia; The Modern Experience; The Lessons of Mesopotamia
Chapter Twenty-six. The Lessons of Traditional Irrigation Agriculture; Learning to Live with Nature
Introduction; Size: A Critical Factor? Why Small is Not Enough; Seasonal vs. Perennial Irrigation; The Preservation of Forests; Balancing Water Consumption with Water Availability; Design and Management: Village Elder vs. Distant Bureaucrats; Food for Local Consumption rather than for Export; The Need for a new 'World View': The Ecological Approach