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DAM-L Zambezi Warning/LS (fwd)
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Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 16:02:06 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
Subject: Zambezi Warning/LS
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A warning from a Zambezi dams expert.
>From: "DAVIES, BR, BRYAN, PROF" <brdavies@botzoo.uct.ac.za>
>Organization: University of Cape Town
>To: Ryan Hoover <ryan@irn.org>
>Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 12:02:54 +0200
>Subject: Warning
>
>Ryan, please pass this message on to all who will read it on your
>lists.
>Unless Cahora Bassa and Kariba dam managers begin 'in tandem',
>co-ordinated releases to draw down reservoir levels much
>lower than maintained during the past three years, the presently
>prediced 'higher than average rainfall' for the upper Zambezi Basin
>this coming summer will inevitably lead to rapid rises in
>both reservoirs during the wet season.
>In 1998 I warned that unless co-ordinated management of the Zambezi
>reservoirs occurred, then loss of life and infrastructure would
>be a fact of life in the Middle and Lower Zambezi reaches. Human
>induced flooding happened in the Middle Zambezi reaches during
>the Limpopo 2000 floods at which time I warned the community again.
>The repeat of flooding occurred in March-April 2001, this time
>with repeated losses in the Middle reaches of the river (Zambia) and
>loss of life (107 dead) and a quarter of a million made homeless
>- who still are homeless as I write - along the lower valley.
>Cahora Bassa came perilously close to overtopping for at one stage
>far more water was entering the reservoir than was released; the
>releases were curtailed in order to reduce already serious flooding
>in the Shire and Delta areas. This type of mismanagement and ad hoc
>'fire-fighting' approach to major reservoir management is utterly
>unacceptable and is playing with the lives and livelihoods of many
>tens of thousands of people. I fear the worst.
>Bryan
> WATER: MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD!
>
> "Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells
> of events in the life of my people.
> The water's murmer is the voice of my father's father. The
> rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry
> our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the rivers
> the kindness you would give any brother."
>
> Chief Seattle to the President of the United States: 1852.
>
> ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR BRYAN ROBERT DAVIES,
> FRESHWATER RESEARCH UNIT, ZOOLOGY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE
> TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, 7700.
>
Ryan Hoover
Africa Campaigns
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
USA
Phone: (510) 848-1155 Fax: (510) 848-1008
www.irn.org
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network <'})))>><
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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