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GLOBAL HYDROPOWER & HYDRODAMS
Compiled September 05, 2008Michael Totten,mtotten@conservation.org Postel et al.
1
estimated that by the early 1990s withdrawals from rivers, streams, and aquifers combined withinstream flow requirements already totaled 6,780 cubic kilometers
2
per year and that these uses accounted for54% of total global accessible runoff.Two-thirds of the freshwater flowing to the oceans is already controlled by dams, and impound about 14 percent of all global water run-off. No major river in the world is without existing or planned hydroelectricdams. Between 40 and 80 million people had been displaced by dams in the previous fifty years, according tothe World Commission on Dams. Yet,
•
 
1 billion people are without safe water
•
 
2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation (more people than lived on the planet in 1940)
•
 
3 billion discharge waste with no or inadequate treatment
•
 
4 billion yet to be born will impose significant water demands in decades to comeThese are not (yet) intractable problems; in fact, there are plausible, ecologically sustainable, cost-effectivetechnical solutions readily available. One of the biggest impediments, however, is corruption and lack of public accountability.Transparency International’s
Global Corruption Report 2008
finds corruption is a cause and catalyst for thewater crisis afflicting more than 1 billion people who live with inadequate access to safe drinking water.Hydrodams proposed over the next two decades will exceed $2 trillion in construction costs These largenumbers create multiple opportunities for bribery, fraud and other forms of corrupt behaviour. Civil workscontracts are typically the largest budget line, accounting on average for 60 per cent or more of total projectcosts, making dam construction a primary target for corruption.
3
 Regulatory transparency and strong enforcement are fundamental to achieving a portfolio of preferredoptions that ensure human health and well-being, economic prosperity,
and 
the health and integrity of blueand green freshwater ecosystems, especially the ones that are key biodiversity areas.
Projections of water use and actual global water withdrawals 
Caveat: The water projections in the chart below do not take into account the effects of climatechange on both water demands and water supply that have become of concern in recent years.
1
Postel SL, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR. 1996. Human appropriation of renewable fresh water.
Science
271:785–88
2
One cubic kilometer (km
3
) = 1 trillion liters or 1 billion metric tons.
3
Transparency International,
Global Corruption Report 2008 – Corruption in the Water Sector 
, 2008,http://www.waterintegritynetwork.net/page/430/ .
 
 
2
Projections of water use and actual global water withdrawals, as compiled from various projections of global water withdrawals made sincethe 1960s, together with an estimate of actual global water withdrawals. Note that projections made before 1980 forecast very substantialincreases in water use; more recent forecasts have begun to incorporate possible improvements in water productivity to reflect recenthistorical experience. Source: Interpretively modified (i.e., efficiency overlay onto basic graph) from Peter Gleick, Global FreshwaterResources: Soft-Path Solutions for the 21st Century, State of the Planet, Nov-Dec 2003,
Scientific American
.Source: Peter Gleick, Water Use,
 Annual Review of Energy and Environment Resources
, 2003. 28:275–314.
"The most cited estimate of the cost of meeting future infrastructure needs for water is $180 billion per yearto 2025 for water supply, sanitation, wastewater treatment, agriculture, and environmental protection—a
 
daunting figure, given current levels of spending on water [
Costs for major hydropower dams or large-scalewater transfers are not included in this already large number. An estimated $40 billion per year are spent on new dams.
]. This figure is based on the assumption that future global demand for water and water-related
 
services will reach the level of industrialized nations and that centralized and expensive water supply andtreatment infrastructure will have to provide it. If we focus on meeting basic human needs for water for allwith appropriate-scale technology, the cost instead could be in the range of $10 billion to $25 billion per year
 
for the next two decades—a far more achievable level of investment." Peter Gleick 
Source: Peter Gleick, Global Freshwater Resources: Soft-Path Solutions for the 21st Century, State of the Planet, Nov-Dec 2003,
Scientific American
, citing W. Cosgrove, F. Rijsberman, A Water Secure World: Report of the World Commission for Water in the21st Century. Chapter 4: Framework for Action, World Water Council, London, 2000,www.worldwatercouncil.org/Vision/Documents/CommissionReport.pdf .
 
 
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 Agriculture Consumption
Most observers put total
 consumptive
use of water worldwide for irrigated agriculture at nearly 85% of totalhuman consumptive use. Obviously this water is vital for the production of food (as well as consumed ingrowing fiber, animal feed, and increasing, fuels). In 2000, around 270 million hectares of land (equal to27% of USA) were irrigated worldwide, which is nearly 1/5
th
of total cropland. Around 40% of allagricultural production comes from these irrigated areas.As a result, evaluations of water use must pay particular attention to this sector. This will remain critical forlong-term planning purposes given the projected adverse impacts that climate extremes will have onagricultural productivity and watershed systems. A recent assessment of the impact of a few degrees Celsiusincrease in global average temperature, coupled with declining precipitation on global agriculture, indicatescrop losses could be as high as 28% for Africa, 24% for Latin America, 30% to 40% for India, and 21% forall developing countries (Cline, 2007). Even industrialized nations like the United States and Australia willsuffer losses, including 30% to 35% in the southeast and southwestern plains of the United States.
Source: William Cline,
Global Warming and World Agriculture
, 2007, Peterson Institute
 Powerplant Use
A substantial fraction of total water withdrawals in some industrialized nations is
used 
for the production of energy, either directly in hydroelectric plants or indirectly for power plant cooling.
 Most of this water is not consumed, but discharged 
. In the United States, nearly half of total water withdrawals went to power plantcooling. In Europe, one-third went for these purposes.
 Installed Hydropower
In 2007, there was 770,000 MW of installed hydropower, which generated 16% of the world’s electricity, or3,190 TeraWatt-hours, TWh, out of 19,895 TWh.
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Hydropower provides at least a half of the electric supply
4
BP, BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2008,http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=6929&contentId=7044622.
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aangiras

The perceptions on climate change threats from Hydrodams are not only too skewed but highly generalistic and wrong.In all the developing and least developed countries where energy is in great shortage, fuelwood is the main source of energy for essential requirements like cooking. Not a dry blade of grass is left in the reservoirs before their impounding in these countries. Therefore there is no question of any vegetation left in the reservoir to rot! This has been seen in all Indian reservoirs.Therefore to generalise that dams exascerbate climate change is wrong and misplaced. In fact hydropower is the cleanest source of energy.

reply08 / 03 / 2009
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