Water storage for sustainable development and poverty eradication: Part 1 of 2

June 19th, 2012

Prof. Francisco Luiz Sibut Gomide, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil

For thousands of years, dams and reservoirs have been important tools for the administration of extreme hydrological events. Water related disasters such as floods and droughts have been successfully mitigated by the intelligent use of the storage provided by reservoirs.

Up to the last quarter of the 20th century, those responsible for the construction of dams and creation of reservoirs – entrepreneurs, decision makers, engineers, investors – were praised for the acknowledged benefits of their works: water supply, irrigated agriculture, flood control, improved navigation and firm hydroelectric generation (then considered clean and unequivocally renewable energy).

In the last thirty to forty years, on one (positive) side, a great consensus has been reached, concerning the need for natural systems preservation and proper environmental protection. However, on the other (negative) side, alarmist groups and organizations have been exaggeratedly stating that infrastructure works, in general, and dams and reservoirs, in particular, cause serious and intolerable environmental impacts (see Belo Monte Dam: A spearhead for Brazil’s dam-building attack on Amazonia?).

Since the eighties, specific organizations have succeeded in coercing multilateral credit institutions – such as the World Bank – to drastically reduce the technical and financial support for the construction of hydroelectric plants, seriously jeopardizing their commitment to poverty reduction.

One may even dare to state that this was the starting point of a process aiming at the criminalization of reservoirs. According to some groups and organizations, hydroelectricity would not be “clean” and could not be considered renewable, because of the reservoir. In consequence, reservoirs also would not be acceptable for water supply, flood control, irrigation etc.

Natural lakes and man made reservoirs

The volume of fresh surface water in the earth is only 0.0075% of the total global water1: 104,620 km3, distributed in lakes (90,990 km3), swamps (11,510 km3) and rivers (2,120 km3). According to the International Committee on Large Dams – ICOLD, the total water storage in man-made reservoirs is around 6,620 km3.2

The services of ecological systems such as water regulation, water supply and disturbance regulation (say, flood control), produced by natural capital stocks (lakes, swamps and rivers), are duly appreciated3. The idea behind man-made reservoirs is to offer these very same services, plus hydroelectric power, improved navigation and expanded recreation opportunities.

Mother Nature decided (randomly, of course) that USA deserved some 19,000 km3 of fresh water stored in natural lakes. That seems to be fine. But when the American human ingenuity provides around 800 km3 (or maybe 1,000 km3)4 of additional freshwater storage in man-made reservoirs, then, according to some organizations, an ecologic mistake has been perpetrated. And because these extremist organizations believe that all errors – even the imaginary ones – must be punished, they decided: “no more dams”.

There are more than 75,000 dams in USA, with age over 50 years, on the average. Even so, there is no evidence supporting the assertion that building them was a mistake. The benefits of their reservoir operation largely offset eventual environmental impacts.

The irrational opposition

The motivation for the irrational opposition to dams and reservoirs remains an unsolved mystery. How can anyone justify the opposition to the service of water regulation? And the opposition to the service of water supply? How can anyone waive the protection provided by reservoirs in flood routing? How can anyone criticize man-made reservoirs without regretting the existence of natural lakes? How can anyone favor the replacement of renewable energy (such as hydroelectricity) by thermal electricity (from fossil fuel combustion)? How can anyone pretend there are more risks in hydroelectric projects than in thermonuclear electric plants?

Apparently, the opposition to dams and reservoirs is the consequence of two acts of denial. The first one is to deny that, following the change in ecological balance caused by man-made works, remedial measures are available to facilitate the adjustment of biological species to a new, often better ecological environment. The other denial is the refusal to acknowledge that in many cases, one must contemplate the relocation of population installed in inappropriate places, from the standpoint of the highest public interest. And that it can be done in such a way to improve the well-being of the relocated populations in a wide variety of aspects.

Environmental protection is a moral obligation of mankind. This song is very good. But not all singers are good. The irrational opposition to dams and reservoirs facilitates the adoption of the environmental flag by insincere people, groups and organizations, to be used as a mere public relations instrument.

To be rational, the debate would have to be conducted in the context of comparison of alternatives and trade-off analyses. Particularly in Brazil, the mistaken application of the principle of precaution has transformed most dam construction initiatives in time consuming, long legal battles. In the meantime, the increasing demand for electricity has been supplied by fossil fuel fired thermal plants, with more pernicious environmental impact!

The essential infrastructure

Unfortunately, the mistaken opposition to dams and reservoirs was so efficient in forcing, coercing and influencing people and organizations that aid agencies and other multilateral institutions discreetly steered away from investments in infrastructure.

However, investment in infrastructure is indispensable for sustainable development and poverty eradication. Sustainable development implies in the optimum conversion of the resources of nature to benefit mankind, including the future generations. Poverty eradication requires concrete actions such as infrastructure works to assure universal access to water and electricity.

According to Yevjevich5, one may safely state that a civilization is as good as its infrastructures. Rich countries are living off the convenient services provided by infrastructure developed in the 20th century, which is aging. At the same time, pointing to poor countries, this rich countries agenda advocates a path to development that no one has taken before6.

It looks like the story of the Directors of a club – the riches’ club – writing down rules for the selection of new members, setting up conditions not fulfilled – today or ever – by the existing members. Furthermore, rules such that, once fulfilled, would make it impossible to become a member of this club!

The end result of the irrational opposition to dams, reservoirs and other infrastructure works is that the 20th century was closed with 850 million people without adequate access to water, 1.6 billion people without access to electricity and 2.9 billion people living on less than 2 dollars a day.

The second part of this article looks specifically at the issues of dam construction in Brazil.

References:

1. Gleick, P.H. (1996) “Water resources”, Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, ed. by S. H. Schneider, vol. 2, pp 817-823, Oxford University Press, New York.

2. White, W.R. (2010) “World Water: Resources, Usage and the Role of Man-Made Reservoirs”.

3. Costanza, R., d’Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O’Neill, R.V., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R.G., Sutton, P. e van den Belt, M. (1997) “The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital” Nature, volume 387, pp 253-260, May 1997.

4. NOOA (2012) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/info/water_cycle/hydrology.cgi.

5. Yevjevich, V. (1999) “Quo Vadis, America?”, Highland Ranch General Publishing.

6. Briscoe, J. (2011) “Making reform happen in Water Policy: Reflections from a practitioner”, OECD Global Forum on Environment: Making water reform happen, OECD Conference Center, Paris, 25-26 October 2011.

Francisco Luiz Sibut Gomide was born in Curitiba, Paraná in 1945. He earned a PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources at Colorado State University in 1975 and in 1986 he became a Professor of Water Resources Engineering at the Universidade Federal do Paraná. In a long and varied career Francisco has served as Minister of Mines and Energy of the Federative Republic of Brazil; President and CEO of COPEL – Companhia Paranaense de Energia; and President and Director of the Brazilian Association for Hydrology and Water Resources. Currently, Professor Gomide is the owner of the consultant GMD – Organização Industrial e Engenharia Ltda.

The views expressed in this article belong to the individual authors and do not represent the views of the Global Water Forum, the UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance, UNESCO, the Australian National University, or any of the institutions to which the authors are associated. Please see the Global Water Forum terms and conditions here.