Water & Energy Solutions / Reports

International Rivers Network’s second annual "Dams, Rivers & People" report explains the failure of dams and levees to stop rising flood damages and describes better ways to tackle flood management. It also surveys the world of rivers and dams in 2006 and hotspots for 2007.

International Rivers’s first annual "Dams, Rivers and People" report analyzes the links between water and poverty reduction, and argues for new approaches to water management that are pro–poor and environmentally sustainable.

The Grim Statistics of Water

This report, prepared for the "UN Hydropower and Sustainable Development Symposium" in Beijing, China on October 27–29, 2004, examines the role of large hydro in sustainable development and suggests principles to ensure cost–effective, environmentally sustainable and socially equitable development of the world’s energy resources.

Eradicating poverty and reducing global warming are two of the biggest challenges facing the world in the 21st century. The urgent need to address these challenges has led to many initiatives to promote renewable energies. While the aim of these efforts should be strongly supported, they could be counterproductive if – as the large hydro industry is advocating – they are turned into instruments to promote hydropower megaprojects.

This summary of the report, “Twelve Reasons to Exclude Large Hydro from Renewables Initiatives,” has been prepared for distribution at the International Conference for Renewable Energies, Bonn, June 2004. This summary has been endorsed by 247 groups and networks in 61 countries.

By design, dams alter the natural flow regime, and with it virtually every aspect of a river ecosystem, including water quality, sediment transport and deposition, fish migrations and reproduction, and riparian and floodplain habitat and the organisms that rely on this habitat.