"Dams have had their day in Europe" ecologist claim as dismantling of river barriers ramps up
In the past 20 years or so, more than 500 dams or weirs have been removed in Northern and Western Europe. For example, last April saw the beginning of the end for the inoperative Yecla de Yeltes dam in Spain. Ecologists are hopeful that reconnecting 27 km (17 miles) of the Duero River will benefit several endemic species, including endangered fish belonging to the Cyprinidae family.
The dismantling of older, obsolete dams has been gaining traction since 2000 when the EU adopted the Water Framework Directive, promoting legislation to protect lakes and rivers of member states. Still, almost 3000 hydropower plants are currently being planned across the Balkans, where most of the last few remaining free-flowing rivers in Europe can be found.
“Fragmenting rivers with dams, barrages and other infrastructure is a key reason for the significant losses of fish and other freshwater species across Europe, as well as for the poor state of many of our water bodies," explains Sergiy Moroz, Senior Policy Officer for Water and Biodiversity at the European Environmental Bureau. "Removing old or obsolete dams helps to restore a river’s connectivity, bringing hope for migratory fish species, such as salmon, eel and sturgeon."
While some warn of the consequences of building new dams, others concentrate on the need to monitor river restoration projects currently underway. Carlos Garcia de Leaniz, who coordinates the Adaptive Management of Barriers in European Rivers (AMBER) project, explains that little care was put into analyzing the impact that the construction of dams would have on local ecosystems and that this mistake must not be repeated now when these barriers are being removed.
The AMBER project is currently conducting a census of all dams in 38 European countries and will utilize nine case studies to assess costs and damage potential of dam-removal projects. For now, a small number of dams across Spain, France, Denmark and the Netherlands are scheduled to be removed in 2018 and 2019.
Further reading and sources:
"Europe is demolishing its dams to restore ecosystems" at Nature
"Dams have had their day: EU governments must ramp up ambition on their removal)" at WWF
You just planted 0.09 tree(s)!
Thanks to @tychoxi
We have planted already 5295.75 trees
out of 1,000,000
Let's save and restore Abongphen Highland Forest
in Cameroonian village Kedjom-Keku!
Plant trees with @treeplanter and get paid for it!
My Steem Power = 25247.46
Thanks a lot!
@martin.mikes coordinator of @kedjom-keku
Congratulations @tychoxi! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations you got resteemed!
Resteem your Posts to 10000+ Followers — just send 0.1 SBD or STEEM to @yougotresteemed with link in memo (you also will receive a 100% upvote)!
For daily bloggers we offer a Resteem subscription including at least one Resteem a day and a daily feature + daily upvotes!
Wanna sell your Votes or looking for an Upvote-Bot? Try Smartsteem