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ndia is on a large-dam building spree, with more than 5,100 large dams already blocking almost all of its important rivers, and more to come. These dams have had a profound negative impact on communities and ecology upstream and downstream. While promised benefits of these dams (irrigation, hydropower or flood control) have been overstated, numerous interrelated and complex negative impacts have simply not been studied or documented. Nonetheless, communities and ecosystems continue paying huge prices of these impacts. One neglected aspect of India’s dam-building spree is the huge downstream

Yurok elder Jimmy Jones was born after the Klamath dams changed his tribe’s way of life. His grandchildren will hopefully see the removal of the dams and the restoration of salmon. © Bob Dawson he most iconic dam-removal campaigns in the western United States are advancing, slowly but surely. The lesson from these efforts is clear – the road to restoration is a long one. Still, many believe it’s worth the wait, as the benefits are so great. In nearly all cases where dams have been removed, recovery of ecosystems and fisheries has been remarkably rapid. There are more than 75,000 dams

ivers are often called the planet’s circulatory system. Like our body’s circulation system, the planetary one doesn’t work very well when it’s clogged up. Dams hold back not just water but silts and nutrients that replenish farmlands and build protective wetlands and beaches. They change the timing of floods, impacting species that have evolved in synch with natural flood cycles. Dams change the very riverness of our waterways, in ways we can’t always see but that the earth can certainly feel. This issue of World Rivers Review focuses on how to maintain healthy flows in our rivers

The images in this narrative describe the aftermath of one of the largest environmental disasters man has perpetrated – the death of the Aral Sea, once the planet's fourth largest lake.Lost species of the Aral Sea © Radek Skrivanek In the winter of 2004, I arrived to Aralsk, the gateway to the Aral Sea. It was once the sea's largest city and a center of the thriving fishing industry, with a bustling port and shipyards. My first visit coincided with the centennial of the city's founding. The freshly painted administrative buildings contrasted sharply with the general decline resulting

From March 2011 World Rivers Review There is wide recognition that the development of big dams has been especially harmful to women. Those behind the construction of dams have failed to protect the rights and welfare of those who are affected by these projects, and particularly have failed to resolve the problems caused to women and children. Many countries are signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which holds signatory countries accountable for specific actions to promote women's rights and legislation to ensure equal treatment

From March 2011 World Rivers ReviewThe building of hydroelectric dams in Brazil has been marked by a lack of respect for the environment and the affected communities, and especially of women. In Brazil, more than 2,000 dams have been built, resulting in the eviction of more than one million people from their lands. The federal government has proposed the construction of 1,400 more dams over the next 20 years. These major works come with false promises of jobs and development, respect for nature, "cheap" energy for the people, and guarantees of families' right to compensation. Sheila Juruna, w

 From March 2011 World Rivers Review More than 500,000 indigenous people in two countries are threatened by the construction of the Gibe III Dam on the Omo River in Ethiopia. If built, the dam would destroy the fragile ecosystem of the Lower Omo Valley and Kenya's Lake Turkana region. This is one woman's story from that struggle. For safety reasons, her identity and tribe have been changed. A woman from the Omo Valley. (Photo: © Jane Baldwin) We live here because of the Omo River. No other reason. Our culture is here. This land belonged to our fathers and father's father'

From March 2011 World Rivers Review"The Bujagali Dam project will bring tremendous opportunities you cannot afford to miss! It will transform your lives - it will provide good jobs for you and your children, your houses will be lit by electricity, clean running water will flow in your bath taps, good schools for your children, modern health centers and good roads running through your community." These were the tantalizing words told to the project-affected people by the Ugandan government and the Bujagali Dam developers to lure them into accepting the project, now under construction on the Ni

From March 2011 World Rivers Review The movement to protect rivers and rights is full of amazing women. We asked just a few of them to talk about the rivers they love, and what they hope for their future. Our River is Our NameCaleen Sisk-Franco, Tribal Chief and Spiritual Leader, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, (California, U.S.A) Caleen Sisk-Franco The name of my tribe, Winnemem Wintu, translates to Middle Water people and is taken from the name of our river, the Winnemem Waywakit, which is bounded by the Upper Sacramento to the West and the Pit River to the East. Now known to most as the McCloud

From March 2011 World Rivers Review Andree Sosler, Executive Director of Darfur Stoves, talks about the importance of clean stoves. Improved cookstoves are critical to improving both the energy and health needs of women in Women demonstrate an improved cook stove in a Darfur Refugee camp. (Darfur Stoves) developing countries. More than half of the world's population - three billion people - cook their food and heat their homes by burning coal and biomass, including wood, dung, and crop residues, in open fires or rudimentary stoves. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to smo