The Way Forward / Reports

Dam Removal

For those of us now being saddled with the costs of years of unquestioned dam–building, it would be unconscionable to remain silent.

– Dan Beard
Commissioner of the US Bureau of Reclamation (1993 – 1995)

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.

This is International Rivers' guide on how to use the World Commission on Dams report in their struggles for justice and human rights. This 59–page booklet provides background on the formation of the WCD, a detailed summary of the WCD’s findings and recommendations, and responses from NGOs, institutions and governments to the report. Most importantly, the guide provides suggestions for how activists can use the report to stop destructive development projects and promote better alternatives.