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DAM-L ENS on world's dams silting up/LS (fwd)
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Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 08:49:39 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
Subject: ENS on world's dams silting up/LS
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World's Water Storage Capacity Shrinking as Dams Silt Up
BONN, Germany, December 4, 2001 (ENS) - The reservoirs of the world
are losing their capacity to hold water as erosion brings silt down
to settle in behind dams, the chief of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) warned today.
Speaking to the Bonn International Conference on Freshwater, UNEP
Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said that siltation is reducing the
capacity of the world's reservoirs to hold water, a result that is
hastened by the clearcutting of forests.
"The issue of dams can arouse strong passions on both sides," Toepfer
told the delegates. "Some people are very much in favor of building
dams and others are vehemently against. However, what we are talking
about here is the state and fate of the existing stock of dams and
reservoirs on whose waters billions of people depend for not only
irrigation and drinking water, but also for industry and the
production of hydroelectricity."
Toepfer, a former German environment minister, counselled careful
management of the world's stocks of fresh, drinkable water. "It would
seem prudent and sensible for us to manage the existing stock in the
most sustainable way possible. Otherwise we face increasing pressure
on natural areas with water, such as wetlands and underground
aquifers, with potentially devastating environmental consequences to
wildlife and habitats," he said.
In response, UNEP has launched a new Dams and Development Project
(DDP), to address siltation and other serious environmental effects
of dam development.
Based in South Africa, the Dams and Development Project, known as the
DDP Unit, is a follow up to the work of the World Commission on Dams,
publisher of an in-depth report on the environmental impact of large
dams in November 2000.
The new DDP Unit has secured funding and pledges of over $2.5 million
from the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland
and the United Kingdom. Sustainable management of reservoirs will
take a central role in its work.
None too soon for Rodney White, author of "Evacuation of Sediments
from Reservoirs" and a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
White is warning the world's leaders to pay more attention to the
capacity of the world's dams to hold water.
"The loss of capacity of the world's dams should be of highest
concern for governments across the globe, and at the moment I do not
believe this issue is commanding the attention it deserves," White
said.
"The demand for water is rising, not falling, as the population of
the planet climbs from six billion today to an estimated 10 billion
by 2050. I am extremely concerned," said White, "that water shortages
in some of the poorer parts of the world will intensify unless we act
to reduce reservoir sedimentation and conserve storage in existing
dams using sound management techniques. Sediment removal should be a
fundamental feature in the design of dams and their associated
infrastructure."
In view of the "threat of global warming," Toepfer urged the planting
of forests across the globe. "We must act to reduce the loss of
forests and to re-afforest cleared areas as part of a comprehensive
strategy of watershed management of the world's river systems," he
said.
"There will always be natural levels of erosion that will contribute
to a loss of water storage capability," Toepfer acknowleged, and
called on engineers to provide "technical solutions that offer
environmentally friendly ways of extending the lives of the world's
reservoirs."
Jeremy Bird, interim coordinator of the DDP Unit, said next week, a
meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, they would be looking at how to
improve the performance of reservoirs and dams across a wide range of
functions from agriculture to power generation.
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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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