ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

ASSIGNMENT # 1

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

SUBMITTED TO:

MA’AM AFIA SEHROOSH

SUBMITTED BY:

SUMAN WAJID 758

MAWIYA MUMTAZ 779

SONAM FARAZ 765

DATE OF SUBMISSION:

19/03/2018

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

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Introduction:
For thousands of years, dams have been used to store water and to create energy.
However, 90 percent of global dam investments have been made after 1950, both in terms of
the millions of small or medium sized dams and the thousands of dams higher than 50m. The
characteristics of these dams vary greatly.

SURVEYS

Social impacts of large dams:

Using social impact assessment (SIA), the authors investigate the effects of large dam
projects on human communities through time and across geographical scales. Communities
living close to dams often do not benefit from water transfer and electricity generation
revenues. Conducting proper social impact assessments can help to promote development
strategies that address the most important concerns for local populations, enhancing the long-
term sustainability of dam projects. Large dams are often criticized because of their negative
environmental and social impacts (Whoint, 2018). Commented [AS1]:
This is how you give in-text reference

Main social impacts:

 Forced population displacement and impoverishment.

 Boomtown formation around major constructions.
 Downstream unanticipated changes in agro-production systems.
 Loss of cultural heritage assets.
 changes in water and food security.
 increases in communicable diseases.
 social disruption caused by construction and involuntary resettlement.

(published in 2009, Published in 1999, draws on data from the Manwan Dam on the upper
Mekong in China and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in Southern Africa) Commented [AS2]: No need to make the text colored and bold.
The references could be seen if they are there.

Whoint. (2018). Whoint. Retrieved 19 March, 2018, from

http://www.who.int/hia/examples/energy/whohia020/en/ Commented [AS3]: This is the way to provide reference at the
end of your work - In the reference list.

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 The migration and resettlement of people near the dam sites.

 Changes in the rural economy and employment structure.
 Effects on infrastructure and housing.
 Impacts on non-material or cultural aspects of life.
 Impacts on community health and gender relations.

( Journal of Enironmental Management, July 2009, Pages S249-S257)

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SURVEY

Habitat loss:
The loss of habitat through the conversion of land from its natural state to a
developed landscape represents the single greatest impact of increased human activity on
native wildlife. Where habitats and wildlife species have been identified as being of importance,
special measures may be required either to avoid or minimise the loss or to mitigate for it
during the construction process.

Habitat Fragmentation:
Habitat fragmentation is a process whereby large tracts of the natural
landscape are gradually developed and subdivided until only patches of original habitat remain.
The patches are often too small and too far apart to support the survival and reproductive
needs of many wildlife species during various stages of their life-cycle or in different times of
the year.

Changing Aquatic Habitat:

Development can also affect the quality and quantity of aquatic habitats.
Increased amounts of hard surface can reduce the ability of rainwater to infiltrate the soil.
Rainwater instead runs off the land at an increased volume and rate. This has the potential to
reduce the recharge of groundwater and increase flooding, streambed erosion, and

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sedimentation. Human recreational activity in an area may directly impact wildlife and reduce
the quality of the habitat provided.

Daily human activity:

Human activities can disturb sensitive habitats and wildlife. Disturbing

wildlife raises their stress level and increases energy consumption. If repeated frequently, such

disturbance can impact on reproduction and the survival of the species.

Environmental Impact’s Survey:

The environmental consequences of large dams are numerous and

varied, and includes direct impacts to the biological, chemical and physical properties of rivers

and riparian (or & quot;stream-side") environments.

Detailed information is provided below;

The dam wall itself blocks fish migrations, which in some cases and with
some species completely separate spawning habitats from rearing habitats. The dam also traps
sediments, which are critical for maintaining physical processes and habitats downstream of
the dam (include the maintenance of productive deltas, barrier islands, fertile floodplains and
coastal wetlands).

Transformation upstream of the dam from a free-flowing river ecosystem to an artificial slack-
water reservoir habitat. The alteration of a river's flow and sediment transport downstream of
a dam often causes the greatest sustained environmental impacts. Disrupted and altered water
flows can be as severe as completely de-watering river reaches and the life they contain.
Riverbeds downstream of dams are typically eroded by several meters within the decade of first
closing a dam; the damage can extend for tens or even hundreds of kilometers below a dam.(
Low flows below dams killed thousands of salmon on the Klamath in 2002)

The two main categories of environmental impacts of dams are those which are inherent to
dam construction and those which are due to the specific mode of operation of each dam. The
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most significant consequence of this myriad of complex and interconnected environmental

disruptions is that they tend to fragment the riverine ecosystem, isolating populations of
species living up and downstream of the dam and cutting off migrations and other species
movements.

Most reservoirs, especially those in the tropics, are significant contributors to greenhouse gas
emissions (a recent study pegged global greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs on par with
that of the aviation industry, about 4% of human-caused GHG emissions).

"Dams don't just have local environmental impacts. It's clear they play a key role in the global
carbon cycle and therefore Earth's climate," said Philippe Van Cappellen, a Canada Excellence
Research Chair in Eco hydrology at Waterloo and the study's co-author. " Dams affect carbon
exchanges on a global scale" (said Van Cappellen, a professor in Waterloo's Department of
Earth and Environmental Sciences.)

Large dams have led to:

 The extinction of many fish and other aquatic species.

 The disappearance of birds in floodplains.
 Huge losses of forest.
 Wetland and farmland.
 Erosion of coastal deltas.
 And many other unmitigable impacts.
 It impedes the transport of nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen and silicon through
river networks.
 Reduce species diversity.
( Dams are major driver of global environmental change ,Date: May 17, 2017)

Population displacement:

Varying levels of risk for indigenous peoples, women, and other groups:
In aggregate terms, DIDR often affects the
economically, politically, and socially most vulnerable and marginalized groups in a population.

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However, at the individual and community levels, impoverishment risks associated with
resettlement can be felt more intensely by certain segments of the displaced population.

This article highlights that these groups make up a disproportionately large percentage of
those whose livelihoods are adversely affected by development projects .

For example, despite constituting only 8 per cent of India's population, Adavasis (tribal peoples)
are estimated to make up 40-50 per cent of those displaced by development projects in the
country.

( Colchester's paper (2000) )

Colchester's paper points out that the experience of indigenous peoples with dams has been
characterized by cultural alienation, dispossession of land and resources, lack of consultation,
insufficient or a complete lack of compensation, human rights abuses, and a lowering of living
standards. The specific and strong cultural connection that many indigenous groups have with
the land on which, and the environment in which, they live makes their physical dislocation
potentially more harmful than is often the case for other groups. Cultural Survival Quarterly has
published several issues focusing specifically on the displacement and resettlement of
indigenous populations.

In general, the issue of gender disparities in resettlement operations has been ignored in the
literature. A small number of studies have shown that women often experience the adverse
consequences of forced resettlement more strongly than men. For example, compensation
payments are usually paid to the heads of households, which can concentrate the cash value of
family assets in male hands, leaving women and children at higher risk of deprivation.
Agnihotri's chapter (1996) exposes another form of gender discrimination in compensation
criteria in Orissa, where entitlement to land compensation for unmarried persons is set at age
18 for men and age 30 for women,

At first, women were common participants in community consultations because their husbands
were working away from home for the agricultural harvest. The women's demands changed
resettlement plans to include not only land compensation but also credit to open sewing and
baking enterprises. However, once the consultations began producing tangible results, men

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began attending in place of their wives . (Guggenheim's (1993) discussion of Mexico's

Zimapan Dam Project ).

Design and construction:

The design of dams is a specialized and complex task for the following reasons:

 All dams are different.

 The consequences of dam failure may be disastrous.
 The force of water pressure is enormous.
 The level of acceptable leakage is low; usually it is in the range of liters per second, and
often totals less than the losses by reservoir evaporation.
 The foundation is a key part of the structure and needs careful exploration and
improvement.
 The control of floods is an essential element in dam design and may also be a difficult
problem during construction on large rivers.
 The local seismic risk may modify the design.
 The impact of reservoirs on the environment demands special study.
 Almost all materials used for dams are local; their characteristics have to be identified
and improved upon. Each dam’s design is based upon the optimized utilization of its
materials as well as upon the possible construction methods and the available
equipment to transport and improve millions of tons of various materials.

Estimated investment for a dam:

The total value of dams investments up to the year 2000 is estimated to
have been in the range of 1 500 billion US dollars (excluding the cost of powerhouses). Over 90
percent has been realized since 1950 at about the same yearly investment rate, with more
dams in the sixties and higher unit value recently. In the sixties, most dam investments were in
developed countries, but now most occur in developing countries. Yearly investments from
1990 to 2000 were in the range of 30 billion US dollars. The unit cost of large dams averages 30
million US dollars, but may vary from over one billion to less than one million.

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The average investment per m3 of storage is $0.25; it is much less for large hydroelectric
schemes, but may be well over one US dollar per m3 for medium storage dams. The average
cost per m2 of lake is four US dollars, but costs may range from under one US dollar for large
schemes to over ten US dollars for small ones. Clearly, these values vary in relation to local
economic and physical conditions.

Most dam investments are recent, but the hundreds of thousands of small dams (and water
mills) built many centuries ago have had enormous impact on the progress of industry and
agriculture in many parts of the world. And 4 000 large dams (including 1 000 over 30m high)
were built between 1900 and 1950, bringing key experience to the design of later dams.

(Dam design and construction, reservoirs and balancing lakes(posted on July 16,2013 in dams
of the future) )

Mangla dam power project ( in the scenario of Pakistan)

Dam Type: Earth fill

Height: 380 ft. (above riverbed)

Length: 10,300 feet

Lake Area: 97.7 sq. miles

Catchment Area: 12,870 Sq. miles

Gross Storage Capacity: 5.88 MAF

Live Storage Capacity: 5.34 MAF

Main Spillway Capacity: 1.01 million cusecs

Year of Completion: 1967

Hydropower Generation: 1,000 MW from 10 units of 100 MW each

No. of people to be displaced: 40,000

Historic development:

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In April 1948, India diverted the flow of the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers, an
act, which threatened irrigated cultivation in Pakistan. That same year, in an effort to mitigate
the consequences of possible interference by India with the supplies of the canals feeding from
those rivers, Pakistan embarked on a program of link canal construction to enable the transfer
of water between rivers.

Until 1967, the entire irrigation system of Pakistan was fully dependent on unregulated flows
of the Indus and its major tributaries. The agricultural yield was very low for a number of
reasons, the most important being a lack of water during critical growing periods. This problem
stemmed from the seasonal variations in the river flow and the absence of storage reservoirs to
conserve the vast amounts of surplus water during periods of high river discharge. Mangla Dam
was the first development project undertaken to reduce the shortcoming and strengthen the
irrigation system.

The Mmangla dam project:

Mangla Dam is the 12th largest dam in the world. It was constructed in 1967
across the River Jhelum, about 60 miles southeast of the federal capital, Islamabad. The main
structures of the dam include 4 embankment dams, 2 spillways, 5 power-cum-irrigation tunnels
and a power station. The main dam is 10,300 feet long and 454 feet high (above core trench)
with a reservoir of 97.7 square miles. Since its first impounding in 1967, sedimentation to the
extent of 1.13 MAF has occurred, and the present gross storage capacity has reduced to 4.75
MAF from the actual design of 5.88 MAF. The live capacity has reduced to 4.58 MAF from 5.34
MAF. This implies a reduction of 19.22 % in the capacity of the dam. The project was designed
primarily to increase the amount of water that could be used for irrigation from the flow of the
River Jhelum and its tributaries. Its secondary function was to generate electrical power from
the irrigation releases at the artificial head of the reservoir. The project was not designed as a
flood control structure, although some benefit in this respect also arises from its use for
irrigation and water supply.

The resettlement issue:

During the construction of the Mangla dam, 65,100 acres of land was
submerged. This led to the resettlement of the residents of old Mirpur town and the affected
people were provided accommodation in the newly designed and developed town of Mirpur.

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Most of the people were accommodated however, some grudges remained after resettlement.
An important concern on the raising of Mangla dam is the resettlement of an estimated 40,000
people living in 7,000 houses.

Some of these may be the same people or their descendants who would forced to leave their
hometown for the second time. Rs. 20 billion have been allocated for population resettlement
in the Rs 53 billion project. WAPDA is developing a policy and compensation package for
resettlement of the affectees.

Refrences: Commented [AS4]: Poor reference list!

(Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority, “Annual Report 1999-2000”, 2001.)

Planning Commission, Govt of Pakistan (Sep 2001), “Ten Year Perspective Development Plan
2001-11& Three Year Development Programme 2001-04”.

Planning Commission, Govt of Pakistan, “Federal Govt Public Sector

Development Programme 2001-2002”, June 2001.

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