Summary: Negative Impacts Of Damming

Negative Impacts of Damming

For beavers, dams are a necessity. Not so much for humans. People are becoming increasingly aware of the negative effects dams pose to the landscape they are built on, the people and cultures that inhabit the surrounding areas, the economy in those areas, and the local wildlife. Though dams provide a constant water source, they diminish the environment further downriver, displace local populations, are paid for through people’s tax money, and cause the extinction of many species of fish and animals.

Dams tend to have a negative effect, not on just the environment, but on the people in the surrounding areas as well. There have been times where a dam has been gone to built that people have had to just pick up and move

Throughout history, over time the world has become more and more populated creating more and more commerce. Forests are being torn down, water is being wasted and polluted, and chemicals are being added to farmland for better production. We are changing the world to better fit our needs day in and day out. We are using up resources quickly and need to slow down. Damming is another way in which humans change the course of nature for their own benefit. By building dams so much destruction to nature is happening. To list a few: damming can be the cause of increase in earthquakes, pollution in water. They can be, detrimental to animal habitats, the cause of extinction of certain aquatic life. Due to the placement of the dam animals may have to change their transportation route pr move all together thus changing the life in that geographical area. With the help of dams the number of reproduction of migrating fish decreases along with abuse of adult fish and much more. It is important to keep our environment healthy and as natural as possible in order to continue living on this earth. the health of the people who live on this earth depends on the earth itself, therefore we need to keep the earth natural and healthy as well. By putting up dams and interrupting the natural course of our environments we are only hurting ourselves over

Firstly, dams are very expensive to build. There is a lot of raw materials and labor required to build each dam. After the massive recession of 2008, the government is trying to cut down its expenses in every sector of the economy. The state has to pay compensation to the people affected by construction of dams. Necessary facilities has to be provided which results in construction of schools, hospitals, houses. All of this eventually leads to a rise in government expenditure. In USA, the cost of constructing the Hoover Dam and Grand Coulee Dam was $49 million and $168 million respectively. The World Commision on Dams found that on average, large dams have been at best only marginally economically viable. The average cost overrun of dams is 56%. This means that when a dam is predicted to cost $1 billion, it ends up costing $1.56 billion.These figures are quite high and alarming and suggest that un-damming is essential. Secondly, as mentioned above, damming involves displacement of people from one place to another. This is also the case with local and nearby businesses. Small businessmen may have to relocate or even shut down their businesses, plants, factories and more. Over the years, it has been observed that there has been a significant reduction in the jobs for fishermen due to lack of fishes. Also, damming leads to an imbalance of water