Using named examples, assess the contribution of large scale water management projects in increasing water security.
Using named examples, assess the contribution of large scale water management projects in increasing water security.
Water security means having access to sufficient, safe (clean) and affordable water. Typically the world’s poorest countries are the most water insecure. One way of tackling water insecurity is through large scale water projects e.g. the Three Gorges dam in China or the Aswan dam in Egypt. However there is much controversy over whether these projects are truly sustainable and therefore beneficial in the long run.
The Three Gorges dam project in China blocks the Yangtze River; it cost £17 billion to build and was completed and fully functional on the 4th of July 2012. The dam drains an area of 1.8 million km2 and will supply Shanghai (population of 13 million) and Chongqing (population of 3 million) with sufficient supplies of water. It not only has provided a lot of people with water it is also the worlds largest HEP scheme (generating 18,000 mega watts) and it also protects 10 million people and 25,000 hectares of farmland from flooding. This suggests that these large scale projects increases water security.
Although it meets some of the criteria that makes water security, you could argue that it hasn’t resulted in ‘clean’ and affordable supplies, also the huge environmental, economic, cultural and social impacts it has caused may prove It to be an unsustainable scheme. Up to 1.2 million people, 1,600 enterprises, 140 towns and 4,500 villages have had to be relocated; many of these people still haven’t received compensation – over $30 million of funds set aside for this has been taken by corrupt local officials. The environmental impacts have been devastating; the dam has trapped huge amounts of human and industrial waste (Chongqing pumps in over 1 billion tonnes of untreated waste each year) which has impacted the biodiversity in the area. The dam has interfered with aquatic life e.g. the Siberian Crane and the white flag dolphin which are threatened with extinction. Fish stocks have also declined as the number of phytoplankton they feed on has fallen. Archaeological treasures have also been drowned e.g. the famous Zhang Fei Temple. The port at the head of the lake may become silted up as a result of increased deposition which could cause the development of a delta at the head of the lake – this could affect the longevity of the scheme.