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From reliable water supplies to large-scale electricity generation, the benefits brought by dams can be huge. But so can the problems. Tim Harford explains how these massive structures have changed the world for many, but led to catastrophe for others.

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10 minutes

Last on

Mon 10 Feb 2020 04:50GMT

Image credit

The Aswan High Dam in Egypt (Credit: Khaled Elfiqi/EPA)

Sources

Norman Smith A history of dams London: Peter Davies 1971

Charles Perrow Normal Accidents Princeton University Press: Chichester 1999; Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori Why Buildings Fall Down WW Norton: New York 2002

Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977. Article 56

Benedict Mander Brazil’s Itaipú dam treaty with Paraguay up for renewal Financial Times

“The Ups and Downs of Dams” The Economist

120,000, according to both anthropologist Thayer Scudder and Norman Smith A history of dams London: Peter Davies 1971. The National Geographic Society puts the figure much lower, at 50,000:  

Elinor Ostrom, ‘Incentives, Rules of the Game, and Development’ (Annual Bank Conference of Development Economics, World Bank, May 1995)

Esther Duflo & Rohini Pande, 2007. "Dams," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 122(2), pages 601-646, 05

Sheila M. Olmstead & Hilary Sigman, 2015. "Damming the Commons: An Empirical Analysis of International Cooperation and Conflict in Dam Location," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(4), pages 497 - 526

Heba Saleh and Tom Wilson "Tensions rise between Ethiopia and Egypt over use of river Nile" Financial Times 20 October 2019"

Asit K. Biswas “Aswan Dam Revisited: The Benefits of a Much-Maligned Dam” Development and Cooperation (No. 6, November/December 2002, p. 25-27)  and “The Aswan High Dam

Esther Duflo & Rohini Pande, 2007. "Dams,"

Broadcasts

  • Sat 8 Feb 2020 05:50GMT
  • Sat 8 Feb 2020 14:50GMT
  • Sun 9 Feb 2020 14:50GMT
  • Sun 9 Feb 2020 15:50GMT
  • Sun 9 Feb 2020 22:50GMT
  • Mon 10 Feb 2020 04:50GMT

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