Taking a Look at the Aswan Dam

Easy navigation and flood control encouraged trade along the river, which boosted the economy and led to an increase in jobs for traders, deckhands, etc. (US History TVA). In addition to providing increased trade opportunities, large amounts of money that would have been spent on the flood damage that were saved by the construction of these dams. A few years into the program, stations were created in the area to monitor flooding. Reports from these stations, in addition to computer calculations, show that the total cost of the flood damage up until 2007 would have been $5.8 billion (TVA River Neighbors). The flooding would have destroyed not only people’s homes, but also their businesses and livelihoods., which would have led to further unemployment.

The real question here however is why these dams were installed. Well you see, it all goes back to the Gold Rush. Most accounts of the environmental damage caused by the Gold Rush focus on the direct effects of mining. During the gold rush, many farmers saw the open opportunity to take advantage of miners that had traveled from across the world. They increased the value of their food to outrageous prices.

During the 1900’s the city of Los Angeles and its surroundings were growing at a fast rate. As an effect, the demand for basic needs developed day by day; more specifically, water demand. The just appointed Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works and Supply, Fred Eaton suggested to build a new aqueduct from Owens Valley to 250 miles south that could store water supply for at least two years. His first step was to hire self-taught engineer, William Mullholland, who seemed to had knowledge about the un-researched area where the aqueduct would be built. After analyzing different options, Mulholland decided to build the dam in San Francisquito. However, Mulholland’s lack of education seemed to worry expert engineers. Therefore, a board named “Aqueduct

"The High Dam is the greatest project on the River Nile. It is one of

When deciding whether of not to support the construction of a new dam, we have to use the process of cooperating, communicating, and thinking to come to a logical conclusion that is best for this world. Cooperating is important because it allows people to work together to come to a final decision by using everyones knowledge. Communication is also needed to tell others your opinion and to share the pros and cons of creating a dam. Lastly, thinking like a scientist is greatly needed. When making a decision like this, bias must be out of the opinions given and facts are needed because creating a dam can greatly affect the

The Bonneville Dam is located in the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington state. The Bonneville Dam began construction in 1934 and was opened by 1938. The Dam was built to generate a large amount of energy to the public, to control floods, and for irrigation. It was also constructed to improve navigation on the Columbia River. The construction of the Bonneville Dam caused negative effects to the Indian community that had centered their culture near the Columbia River. The facility administrator that was overseeing the construction of the dam was ordered to complete the dam taking any step necessary to do so. This included the decision on the disposal of personal property of the area which caused the destruction of forty Indian fishing

The Grand Coulee Dam, located in Eastern Washington, was one of controversy, risk, and a point of no return. While the water captured made the desert area blossom in agriculture and it powered some large cities, it created a sense of accomplishment, that humans can control Mother Nature. While many people were very excited for this new construction – which gives power and resources - at the time, some thought it should not be allowed, they are not proud of containing the Columbia River. In this analysis, I am going to focus on the economic and social effects that the Grand Coulee Dam created in its build.

As a result of the flooding, the people of Egypt were always secure in the knowledge that they would have enough food and water. This added to the mental and economical solidity of the Egyptian people.

Archeologist and historians criticize the building of the Three Gorges Dam because it is socially and environmentally destructive. This is because when the dam is finished, nearly 2 million people will have been displaced and 4000 villages, 140 towns, and 13 cities will have been swallowed up. Also, monuments, and priceless archeological discoveries of this countries culture will be lost

The Laguna Dam district uses water from the Colorado River to irrigate millions of their acres. The Colorado River is one of our main sources of water from where we get our water to irrigate from. If we decide to expand and use more of that water, it is going to cut down the supply of water that others use. When we expand, we take more land and also take more water acres to irrigate the more land we buy. That can lead to building more dams and channels which means more money used and less water for everyone else. Some of the dams may also fail which can cause the irrigation systems that we already had to get destroyed.

They include the dying of various animals and seldom fish species. The landscape around the dam could be damaged to a great extend due to the rise of the Yangtze water level. Drainage outlet could occur and therefore some of the surrounding land-scape will be flooded.

“The Three Gorges Dam will be the largest hydropower station and dam in the world, with a 1.2 mile stretch of concrete and a 370 mile-long reservoir and 525 feet deep.”[4] To put that into understandable dimensions it will be the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, and twice as tall. “The reservoir created by the backflow of the dam will extend 360 miles up river to Chongqing, a distance equal to nearly half the length of California.”[5] So what is the point of this monstrosity? The major prospective benefits will be power generation, flood control, and increased navigability of the Yangtze River. Many people debate whether these attributes will actually be as beneficial as builders expect. The drawbacks of the dam are its flood plain and the effects of the flood plain, environmental damage, resettlement, historical and cultural loss, and the ideas of speculators about whether or not some of the dam’s abilities are true.

The Banqiao Dam was built on the Ru River in the western Henan province of China (Typhoon Nina–Banqiao dam failure, 2014). The dam had been completed in 1952 as an effort to control the Yellow River by providing flood prevention, and electricity production (Typhoon Nina–Banqiao dam failure, 2014). The dam was built with a storage capacity of 492 million cubic meters, enough to sustain a 1,000 year flood (Typhoon Nina–Banqiao dam failure, 2014). Shortly after construction, cracks emerged in the dam (Fish, 2013). From 1955-1956, the dam was reinforced utilizing Soviet engineering specifications (Fish, 2013). Upon completion, the dam gained the moniker “Iron Dam” (Fish, 2013) as a nod to its indestructibility.

The Kalabagh dam controversy has been the highlight of attention since a long time now. Every now and then an issue is raised and left unsorted leaving the related provinces further confused as Pakistan’s government has not been able to decide between the two contrasting point of views since the last 27 years (1984, since its design was presented)(Iftikhar,2005) . The basic issue Kalabagh dam project is facing is the different point of views the main territories of Pakistan have. Sindh assumes that if this project is not stopped and allowed to resume the province it would be deprived of their share of

The design and construction of project Itaipu Dam has a huge impact on the economy of Brazil and Paraguay and it also helps to reduce the tension between the two countries. Itaipu Dam is the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world with its length of 7,919 meters and a height of 196 meters. It is located on the border between Paraguay and Brazil, from Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este to Guaíra and Salto del Guairá. The power plant uses the Paraná River as its source for producing energy which is one of the world’s biggest river with the length of 4,880 km. The Dam was named after an island which was near the construction site. It means “the sounding stone” in Paraguayan language. The power plant has an installed generation capacity of 14GW and 20 generating units with the capacity of 700-750 MW. Most of this energy is consumed by Brazil and the dam can supply almost the 87% of the electricity which is needed in Paraguay. In 2016, the power plant produced the energy of 103,098,366 megawatt hours, which became a new world record. In 1994, Itaipu Dam was chosen to be One of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by The American Society of Civil Engineers.