After viewing the paintings of the waterfalls, at the library a booked called The Dammed – Rivers, Dams and the Coming Water Crisis by Fred Pearce published by The Bodley Head, London, UK, 1992 was read. In the paintings the aspect was the beauty of waterfalls and the natural splendor of the waterfall. Another aspect to our civilization is taming those rivers to generate power and reduce flooding. Mr. Pearce focuses on the super dams around the world and are there a benefit or not and his conclusion is for many dams the negatives outweigh the positives.

Although damming a river can bring hydro electricity and many of us think of it as a relatively inexpensive renewable energy source which is good, the effects of the land may not be so good. In many areas of the world, dams are placed in what are considered to be non populated areas, however building the dam changes and often damages the economic activity that people over generations have figured out how to work with what they have. The issues are the lives of the people are often outside the cash economy which means it is hard to measure. The dams in the desert areas are particularly sensitive to this fact because part of the reason the rest of the people down the river exist is the silt moving down from the source of the river, when the river floods essentially gives a fresh layer of earth to the land or manure or natural fertilizer. When the silt is blocked, something has to replace the silt. At the moment, there is nothing.

Another big issue is salt. There is salt in all rocks, when the river flows the salt is washed to the sea. When the river stops flowing, the salt stays on the land and plants do not grow in salty soils. This means the farms lose their agricultural production, the lands become barren and the population is worse off. Badly designed or operated irrigation works create waterlogged soils, which speed up the process. If the water table rises close to the surface, the sun will burn it off and a white salty crust remains. Once that happens few plants if any will grow leading to deserts. The desert means worse storms and an increasing desert.

The last big factor is by slowing down the water allows the water to pool and which allows mosquitos to increase. In some parts of the world, mosquitos carry malaria which causes death to the population. Millions have died from the disease.

If the land is in the temperate zone, the sun will have less of an effect however there will be changes in the land for the land has to react to the river not flowing as it did it in centuries past.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, some of the best are utility stocks because they have dammed the rivers and producing relatively inexpensive hydro with a captive distribution system and a regulatory system which regularly increases prices – as an investor what is not to like. As an effect on the environment, the effects are less in temperate climate zones.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.