Mega-dams back on the agenda

摘要

The World Bank is showing a growing enthusiasm for funding new large dams, especially in Africa. Yet according to a leading ecologist at an organisation part-funded by the bank, this policy threatens to drive parts of the world back into poverty. Max Finlayson of the International Water Management Institute told the 2006 International Riversymposium conference, held in Brisbane, Queensland, last week that many large dams exacerbate poverty by damaging the fisheries and wetlands on which the poorest people depend most. "A quarter of the world lives in river basins where the water is already fully or over-allocated," Finlayson adds. New developments in these areas "will only take water from some users and give it to others". He says investment should go instead into using water more efficiently.