Where Did the Free Flowing Rivers GO...

5fish

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Where did the free flowing rivers go? Under concrete... Going green has its cost...

There did they go... The link has charts to tell the story...


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Only a third of the world’s great rivers remain free flowing, due to the impact of dams that are drastically reducing the benefits healthy rivers provide people and nature, according to a global analysis.

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Separate research in Britain, which included the effects of smaller infrastructure such as weirs, fords and culverts, suggests that 97% of the nation’s river network has been interrupted by human-built structures.

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Great rivers that flow freely are now rare in populated areas. Heavily fragmented rivers include the Danube, Nile, and Euphrates, the Paraná and Missouri in the Americas, the Yangtze and Brahmaputra in Asia, and the Darling in Australia. The Congo and Amazon were found to be among the least affected.

Here is another article a few more details on the issue and rivers...


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Just over one-third (37%) of the world's 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature. Dams and reservoirs are drastically reducing the diverse benefits that healthy rivers provide to people and nature across the globe.

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Among other findings, the researchers determined only 21 of the world's 91 rivers longer than 1,000 km (~600 miles) that originally flowed to the ocean still retain a direct connection from source to sea. The planet's remaining free-flowing rivers are largely restricted to remote regions of the Arctic, the Amazon Basin, and the Congo Basin.

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Protecting remaining free-flowing rivers is also crucial to saving biodiversity in freshwater systems. Recent analysis of 16,704 populations of wildlife globally showed that populations of freshwater species experienced the most pronounced decline of all vertebrates over the past half-century, falling on average 83 percent since 1970.
 

5fish

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Dams will lead to the next great wars....

Snip... story one...


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Iran and Iraq are frequently at odds over water issues. Iraq depends on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for nearly all of its water. But Iran is building dams to redivert some of that water, causing alarm and creating major water shortages for Iraq. Tehran prefers not to work with Baghdad on water projects, instead opting for quick fixes for its own water problems. Some two-thirds of Iran’s 10.2 billion cubic meters of water that exits the country actually flows across its borders into Iraq, which could lead to a major water shortage inside Iran by 2036.

snip... deal with turkey next...

If the water dispute is to be resolved, Iran and Iraq should maximize the use of their wasted river flows, which are substantial; introduce modern irrigation and renewable energy technologies; divert water to industrial development along their borders, which is less water-intensive than agricultural projects; and revive marshlands. Inside Iran, experts at the Center for Strategic Studies are calling for an end to so-called “water mafias” that lobby the parliament and government for more dam construction and water-diversion projects. Finally, Iran and Iraq should develop plans to deal with Turkey’s Ilisu Dam on the Tigris river. The dam will reduce water flows in Iraq and the Karkheh river in Iran, which feeds the Mesopotamian Marshes shared by Iran and Iraq, a region that has been referred to as the “Silk Road to peace.”

snip... story two Egypt...

https://www.theguardian.com/global-...visions-run-deep-as-filling-of-nile-dam-nears

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He was angry at Ethiopia’s decision to build the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam (Gerd), a $4.5bn (£3.6bn) mega-project on the Blue Nile river that runs from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to meet the White Nile in Khartoum, flowing north into Egypt. The dam project will affect water levels downstream, depending on how fast Ethiopia fills its 74bn cubic metre reservoir.

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Sudan’s prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, proposed “joint management” of the dam, which will deplete Sudan’s water from the Blue Nile while potentially providing much-needed cheap electricity in future. Further downstream, however, Egypt has long seen the Gerd as an existential threat that could deprive its 100 million people of the water they need to survive in a changing climate. Some Egyptian officials have even discussed bombing the dam.

snip... story three China... there are pictures and graphs showing the harm...


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Eleven massive dams straddle the mighty Mekong River before it leaves China and flows into Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and on into Vietnam. Yet I have long been skeptical that China could use those 11 upstream dams, massive as they are, to turn off the tap for the countries downstream. Too many people’s livelihoods, including 20 percent of the world’s freshwater fish catch, are dependent on the monsoonal ebb and flow of the Mekong. Yes, dams might store water for a time, but eventually that water must flow downstream through generators’ spinning turbines or open floodgates. Holding on to that water for leverage seemed like a diplomatic blunder.
 
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