Damming the World Bank

The World Bank recognizes the countless social and environmental problems caused by dams, but won't let them get in the way of building more and more dams.

1 minute read

November 26, 2005, 5:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen

"Dams and their reservoirs are the largest structures built by humans, and they are at the heart of the Bank's gigantean approach to development.

...Never mind that the dam overwhelms its surroundings, causing massive social and environmental degradation. In the modern era, the Bank acknowledges the problems, writes voluminous reports about them, even grapples with them to a degree, but doesn't let them get in the way of building dams.

...The Commission even challenged the conventional assumption that dams provide "clean" energy; on the contrary, it said, dam reservoirs, particularly shallow tropical ones, emit greenhouse gases released by vegetation rotting in reservoirs and carbon inflows from watersheds."

Thanks to AlterNet

FULL STORY: Damming the World Bank

Wednesday, November 23, 2005 in AlterNet

Government / Politics Infrastructure World

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