Description: This book highlights the first comparative long-term analysis of the negative impacts of large dams on riverine communities and on free-flowing rivers in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Following the Foreword by Professor Asit K. Biswas, the first section covers the 1956-1973 period, when the author believed that large dams provided an exceptional opportunity for integrated river basin development. In turn, the second section (1976-1997) reflects the author's increasing concerns about the magnitude of the socio-economic and environmental costs of large dams, while the third (1998-2018) discusses why large dams are in fact not cost-effective in the long term.
Review Quotes:
"I enjoyed reading this book. It is well-written and intellectually stimulating. As an emerging scholar in large dams, I found this book very useful, particularly as it engages in a timeline of 60 years. It promises to be a good guide to my own planned long-term studies of large dams in Southern Africa." (Joshua Matanzima, Water International, August 24, 2020)