Heritage Dammed
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Heritage Dammed Water Infrastructure Impacts on World Heritage Sites and Free Flowing Rivers Draft for Comments Presented at the World Hydropower Congress May 2019 Many civil society groups and individuals contributed to this report, including: World Heritage Watch CSO Network (int.) Rivers without Boundaries (int. ) World Heritage Watch (Germany) BROB -Buryat Regional Organization for Baikal (Russia) Greenpeace (Russia) International Rivers (USA) Save the Tigris Campaign (int.) Affected Citizens of Teesta, (India) CEE Bankwatch Network (Georgia) Save the Blue Heart of Europe Campaign (Balkans, EU) Friends of the Earth US WALHI Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia Karnali Expedition (Nepal) Orhid SOS (North Macedonia) Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales - FARN (Argentina) Stimson Center (USA) China Dialogue (UK, China) The Third Pole (UK) Daursky Biosphere Reserve (Russia) WWF (Russia) Pacific Institute of Geography (Russia) ALERT (int.) Research Institute for Integrated Water Management and Protection (Russia) Gabriel Lafitte (Australia) Jennie Sutton (Russia) Shweta Wagh (India) Alex Kemman (Netherlands) Dr. Barnaby Joseph Dye (UK) Geoff Law (Australia) Some local collaborators in several countries chose to remain anonymous. Front cover: Image of the Glen Canyon Dam on Colorado River by Christian Mehlführer/Chmehl @Wikimedia, uploaded from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Glen_Canyon_Dam_MC.jpg 0 Heritage Dammed Water Infrastructure Impacts on World Heritage Sites and Free Flowing Rivers Civil Society Report to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and Parties of the World Heritage Convention Draft for Comments Presented at the World Hydropower Congress Compiled by the Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition and World Heritage Watch with contributions from 25 civil society organizations and affected local communities around the world. May 2019 1 2 Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Part I. Dams' Damage ............................................................................................................................ 9 Water Infrastructure Impacts on the World Heritage Sites - Growing Problems? ........................... 9 Relevant Decisions of the World Heritage Committee ................................................................... 14 The List of the World Heritage Properties Threatened by Water Infrastructure ........................... 17 African Countries Are Yet to Learn the Lessons from the Lake Turkana Destruction ..................... 20 Stiegler’s Gorge Dam, Tanzania ...................................................................................................... 23 Can Tasmania Wilderness Heritage Fuel the Battery of the Nation? ............................................. 29 Sumatra’s Last Jungles: Protecting and Enhancing the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra .. 32 Great Leaping Tiger Dammed ......................................................................................................... 37 Cumulative Dam Impacts Threaten the Chitwan National Park ..................................................... 42 Sikkims Vanishing Rivers: Ongoing Destruction and Impending Threats. ....................................... 45 Lake Baikal World Heritage - a Victim of Climate Change and Hydropower .................................. 49 The Mesopotamia Marshes in Peril ................................................................................................ 53 Upper Svaneti – Upper Enguri River Basin under Threat ................................................................ 56 Lake Ohrid and Hydropower ........................................................................................................... 61 Beyond the Dams: the Impact of the Cóndor Cliff – Barrancosa Hydropower Project .................. 63 Part II. Wild Rivers ............................................................................................................................... 67 If We Value Free Flowing Rivers - They Should Be Protected Now ................................................ 67 The Congo River Ecological Values under Threat from Grand Inga Hydropower Scheme ............. 71 Sustaining the Heartbeat of the Mekong Basin .............................................................................. 76 Wild Floods in the Amur River Basin ............................................................................................... 80 The Karnali River – Nepal’s Last, Most Pristine Free-Flowing River ................................................ 84 The Greater Zab: The Last Free River of Mesopotamia .................................................................. 88 The Europe’s Last Wild River .......................................................................................................... 91 Dam Decommissioned - River Heritage Revived? ........................................................................... 95 Olympic National Park, Dam Removal Cost and Benefits. USA. 2012 ......................................... 95 Shiretoko - Flood Control Benefits Reassessed. Japan, 2018 ...................................................... 96 The Construction and Destruction of the Shengxing Power Station. China, 2018...................... 97 Demolishing Dams will Help Build an Ecological Civilization. China, 2019. ................................ 98 Part III. Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 100 Rivers, Dams and Heritage - How Can We Solve the Conundrum? .............................................. 100 Instead of Conclusion: The Curse of Hydropower? ....................................................................... 106 3 Introduction Free-flowing Amur River forming the Sino-Russian border (Taipinggou National Nature Reserve) We compiled this volume to share information on the immense values of free flowing rivers, as well as our concerns about a difficult relationship between this natural and cultural heritage of humankind and unsustainable water infrastructure. As our world rapidly loses its natural wonders and riches, rivers and other freshwater ecosystems become the most threatened elements of the Planet's natural (and cultural) diversity. Water infrastructures: dams, dykes, canals, etc. are the most powerful human-induced factors in degrading river ecosystems because their development forever changes the morphological character and hydrological patterns of natural rivers and lakes. We are in the middle of a great crisis and should undertake urgent efforts for protection of our freshwater heritage. Fresh water is literally the source of life on Earth: despite occupying 1% of terrestrial surface it hosts up to 10% of known animals and about one-third of all known vertebrate species. By today scientists have identified at least 125 000 species associated with freshwater habitats and this number grows rapidly, due to new discoveries1. The Lake Baikal alone hosts over 2500 species of aquatic life, despite being situated in a harsh boreal region2. Natural freshwater ecosystem processes sustain our lives on earth: transport and purify water, shape and nurture fertile floodplains, ensure multiplication and migration of the enormous fish stocks we feed upon, produce a multitude of other crucial ecosystem services. River valleys carved by watercourses are the favorite habitats of the Homo sapiens, where most of our civilizations evolved. Many people still revere moving waters as sacred, some of us entrust to rivers the remains of their dead, most of us bathe in sacred waters to celebrate religious rebirth. The encroachment on freshwater conservation values increases at the highest rate because natural rivers are an increasingly scarce resource with many values and interests competing for them. The remaining few free-flowing river ecosystems are being rapidly clogged by new dams and other infrastructure projects, polluted and diverted by growing cities and spreading agriculture, overfished and overhunted by growing populations, who are rapidly forgetting 4 the land ethics that helped in the past to live in harmony with nature. Climate change as a common denominator exacerbates almost every river-related problem. The world is losing freshwater biodiversity at a rate twice faster than that of terrestrial or marine species. According to the Zoological Society of London and the WWF International, in less than half a century, from 1970 to 2014, the average abundance of 3,358 freshwater populations representing 880 species monitored across the globe declined by 83%.3 Recent research shows that from 1889 to 2010 in North America alone at least 57 species of freshwater fish went extinct which is a rate at least 877 times faster than what could be considered a natural evolutionary phenomenon (one extinction in 3 million years)4 . A further 37% of freshwater fish that have been assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature are also classified as being under threat of extinction and decline. Infrastructure development, especially dams, has caused a dramatic decline in the number of connected, free-flowing rivers; currently, there are more than 60,000 large dams worldwide, which cause a diverse array of negative impacts such as disruption of the natural flow regime, disconnection of the single river ecosystem, change