Hydropower dams, climate change, and water availability

A new report by Prof. Beilfuss shows the risks that climate change and hydrological variability might have on the large hydropower dams on the Zambezi River. Southern Africa will likely face more extreme climatic events and the dams are not planned to take these occurrencies into consideration. This might lead to building large water storage infrastructures that are uneconomic, reduce water availability for other uses, do not ensure sufficient hydropower production, and, in some case, are even dangerous.

Check a short video about the findings on: http://bit.ly/T7cW6p

And read the report on: http://bit.ly/UkAwrj

1 Answer

1. Thanks Claudio for bringing out Prof. Beilfuss' new report on the River Zambezi. It brings into question very pertinent issues that Egyptian Government intending to construct a 40,000 MW dam on River Nile should carefully study and devise mitigation measures prior to the construction commencement. For instance how will the dam construction affect the downstream and upstream countries' people and processes? They should not only front the economic issues out of it, a selfish intention, but all other attendant issues.