The hydropolitics of dams: engineering or ecosystems?

Abstract

Humanity’s diverse activities are all ultimately buoyed by fresh waters and the water-yielding ecosystems with which we have co-evolved. Control of water flows was central to the settlement of humanity, forming not only the foundation of our first civilisation but substantially shaping subsequent cultural and economic evolution. As a finite resource, fresh water and its management will inevitably also define much of our future relationships and potential. Water is life. It is also power, opportunity, influence and status, particularly for those controlling it in arid and water-stressed lands. Access to and management of water is therefore inescapably political. And of course all politics are personal, never more so than for those with insufficient water to enable their families to drink, cook and wash and whose crops are withering in the field. The first of the three parts of this book, Part 1: Development, water and dams, is primarily concerned with the development of dams and other ‘heavy engineering’ approaches to manipulate ecosystems, significantly including water systems, at ever greater scales. The first chapter, 1.1 Re-plumbing the modern world, addresses how we are re-plumbing entire sub-continents, but also how technology choice and implementation are not without profound consequence for ecosystems and the people who depend upon them. Chapter 1.2 Temples of the modern world charts the evolution of large dams and their related heavy access, distribution and associated operational infrastructure. Some of the direct and indirect consequences of this technological pathway for people and ecosystems are addressed in chapter 1.3 Stemming the flow, whilst measures undertaken to recognise and attempt to mitigate them are considered in chapter 1.4 A changing mindset. Chapter 1.5 The World Commission on Dams and beyond addresses major international initiatives better to understand the consequences and potential future role of dams, with the chapter 1.6 The state of play with dams then synthesising what we now know. 1.7 Dams and ecosystem services considers dams against the evolving framework of ecosystem services, before Part 1 concludes with 1.8 A new agenda for dams. But of course dams and related heavy technology are not the only way to manage water and h the many benefits that water flows confer upon humanity. Other, often ecosystem-based means to manage water form the substance of Part 2: Water in the post-modern world. Its first chapter, 2.1 Water in the post-modern world, considers our relationship with water and related aspects of hydropolitics. Different facets ecosystem-based water management are then considered in the chapters 2.2 Managing water at landscape scale and 2.3 Catchment production and storage. We then turn to 2.4 Water flows through society and 2.5 Markets for water services, before summing up some key considerations relating to 2.6 Nature’s water infrastructure. My work working throughout South Africa, India, Australia, East Africa, China, America and Europe has opened my eyes to the inconvenient truth that neither heavy engineering nor ecosystem-based management is a panacea if considered in isolation. Key considerations instead have to start with the needs and value systems of all people, the character and carrying capacity of the ecosystems that provide for them, and dialogic processes to connect them. This forms the substance of Part 3: Rethinking water and people. Chapter 3.1 Living within the water cycle looks at some of the inconvenient realities with which we have to grapple in a heavily-populated, water-stressed world, including the need to rise above an over-simplistic ‘engineered versus green’ dichotomy. Chapter 3.2 Governance of water systems then turns to options for participatory decision-making and capacity-building necessary for planning management options to achieve sustainable, multi-benefit outcomes that address complex, often competing human demands. The concluding chapter 3.3 Towards a new hydropolitics, together with its supporting Annex 1 Principles for sustainable water sharing, synthesises lessons and principles from throughout the book into an integrated decision-making framework to guide complex, ‘real world’ decisions. We do not have all the answers, and the challenges facing us are as massive as they are pressing and unavoidable. For it is an uncomfortable truth that humans, or at least the demands of contemporary resource-hungry lifestyles, place overbearing demands on the supportive capacities of the ecosystems that underwrite our wellbeing, wealth-creation activities and potential to live fulfilled lives. Whilst this book is educational, summarising several complex fields with respect to what we are learning about integrated water management, it should also be viewed as a practical guide to working with people to better manage their water resources. After all, the reason I wrote it is precisely because I could not find an appropriate volume to help me achieve exactly that! It has been written to support and provoke tomorrow’s water leaders and the people they serve; it is to these people and the heroic feats they will achieve that this book is dedicated.