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Spheres of Influence
Top Photo credit: PhotoDisc, Reuther/EHP
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Environmental Health Issues Harvey Black Abstract
Dams are engineering marvels that can control floods, provide electricity, and irrigate once nonproductive farmland, bettering the lives of millions of people. But that improvement comes at a cost: environmental damage and, often, destruction of the fabric of the lives of people whose lands are flooded by the dammed waters. The World Commission on Dams released a report in November 2000 that sets forth a decision-making framework to guide the construction of future dams. The framework goes beyond a simple cost-benefit analysis and presents a more rational approach to analyzing the need for and effects of dams. Included in the framework are steps such as looking for options other than dams to meet the goals of dams, making sure the benefits of dams are shared by all the people affected, and safeguarding the rights of those people whose livelihoods and homes are destroyed or jeopardized by dams.
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