Downstream Impacts

The most comprehensive guidelines for large dams that protect the rights of river-dependent communities were outlined by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) in 2000.

Tucuruí dam in Brazil (Andreas Missbach)

The 10th Anniversary of the World Commission on Dams Report

Fishing by the Da River near the Son La Hydropower Project in Vietnam (Hoai Thanh)

• From June 2010 World Rivers Review 
  

In the 10 years since the World Commission on Dams (WCD) released its landmark "Dams and Development" report, no single dam project has exemplified the full scope of its cutting-edge approach, and most dam building nations have failed to implement the WCD framework. But there have been some projects that demonstrate WCD principles in action, as well as laws and policies that reflect the principles espoused by the WCD. Here we highlight a few of these positive examples.

• From March 2009 World Rivers Review

Will Power Demand Lead to Another Destructive Dam on Southern Africa’s Most Heavily Dammed River?

Originally published in groundWork magazine, South Africa.

It’s a long and often bumpy ride from Maputo to the quiet villages perched above the Zambezi near Mphanda Nkuwa, a gorge whose name means “the scream of the passing water”. We drive through a lush valley awash with newly leafing spring-green trees and wildflowers on our way to Chinangwe. As we slow for villages, young girls come over to sell us mangoes, and boys to gawk at our big stack of camping gear. Finally, we arrive at the river and set up camp in the shade of a huge baobab tree. Here, where the government of Mozambique is pushing to build a large dam just downstream from the huge Cahora Bassa Dam, life is slow, hot and hard, but with a generous river running through it.

Laos has declared it a national priority to catalyze the country's development through the rapid construction of large dams that export high-risk hydropower to neighboring Thailand and Vietnam.