Few creation of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams.
Perhps it is humankind's long suffering at the mercy of flood and drougnt that makes the
ideal of forcing the waters to do our bidding so facinating.
But to be fascinated is also,sometimes,to be blind.
Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good.
The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful.
It doesn't help that building a big, powerful dam has become s symbol of achievement for
nations and people striving to assert themselves.
Egypt's leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam.
Turkey's bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.
But big dams tend not to work as intended.
The Aswan Dam, for example, staopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt
of the fertile silt that floods left-- all in return for a giant reservoir of disease
which is now so full of silt that barely generates electricity.
And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists.
This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just
short of sending in the troops in their contention over dam on the Danube.
The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams.
But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam
to prove itself.
Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more
wrong-headed Narmade Dam.
And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship
for the powerless and environmental destruction.
The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranted.
Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the costs and benefits of
controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts.
Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation are possible without building
monster dams.
But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific.
It is time that the World learned the lessons of Aswan.
You don't need a dam to be saved.