VietNamNet Bridge – The consequences caused by hydropower plants are bigger than people thought previously. Especially, these include the death toll which hydropower plant investors usually ignore.

For a long time, people believed that hydro power was a kind of clean energy which was friendly to the environment. Especially, hydro power was cheaper than any other kinds of energy, because it was generated by water, which exists in the nature and never gets depleted.

Therefore, people rushed to chop down forests to get places for hydropower plants to meet the increasingly high demand for electricity in human life. However, in reality, things are quite different

Terribly high emissions

The research conducted by the International Hydropower Association and UNESCO pointed out that the decomposition of organic substances in water always led to greenhouse gas emissions. Water reservoirs are the places which collect materials from the entire basin of the rivers. Organic substances are driven into the place from surrounding terrestrial ecosystems. Besides, domestic waste, industrial waste and agricultural pollution are also gathered into the ecosystem, which then causes the greenhouse gas emissions.

The researchers, after conducting some measurement at some hydropower plants’ dams, came to a conclusion that hydropower plants also cause greenhouse gas, including CH4 and CO2.

According to Brazilian National Space Institute, it is estimated that the big hydropower plant dams in the world cause 104 million cubic meters of CH4 every year, which means that hydropower plants cause 4 percent of the total reasons behind the climate change.

Dr Le Anh Tuan from the Can Tho University has pointed out that when developing hydropower plants, people need to chop down forests, which causes the big changes to the ecosystem. Building hydropower plants, by the nature, means making the intervention to the streams and water resources, therefore, this cannot be considered as an “environment friendly behavior.”

How much is the electricity production cost?

In the past, people believed that the production cost of hydro power was the lowest in comparison with other types of energy. However, scientists have pointed out that the production cost of hydro power is not really low, if counting on all kinds of expenses.

According to WCD (the World Commission on Dams), the cost for building dams is always very high, because the actual expenses are always higher by 56 percent than the initial estimates, while it always takes a long time to fulfill the construction. Especially, the dam capacity never gets the designed level. Therefore, WCD has warned that in the context of the increasing climate change, hydro power should not be considered as cheap energy source.

A recent research pointed out that in order to create one MW of electricity; people need to chop down 2.35 hectares of forests and sanctuaries. Meanwhile, Dr Tuan has pointed out that reducing the forest area also means the reduction in revenue from selling CO2 emission credits. It seems that the thing has not been considered by investors.

Dr Dao Trong Tu, a well known scientist, also said that investors always “lie about the investment rate” when talking about the costs of hydropower projects, saying that investors do not count on the long term consequences to be caused by the plants.

Especially, Tu said that investors “ignore” the figures about the death toll when calculating the investment costs. In 1975, Shimantan dam in China was broken, thus causing the death to 170,000 people and the asset toll of 8.7 billion dollars.

Also according to Tu, the WCD’s research which was conducted on more than 1000 dams in 50 countries in the world, including Vietnam, shows that though making contribution to the economic development, hydropower plants cause big consequences. The consequences will influence people in long term, while investors can pocket big money.

Source: NLD