Water & Society

Feb 6

In an anthropology course I taught, students were tasked with selecting a dam and discussing its interconnected social-ecological-political-economic factors, essentially its hydrosocial territory. They examined the ways that humans and water were co-produced and continuously inform and shape each other. Their mini-reports were filled with stories of peoples’ connections to place, displacement, floods, transboundary conflicts, weaponizing water, economic booms and busts, dam collapses, and crises related to climate change.

While some are historical accounts, many are current and on going problems that are still not addressed by governments or hydropower corporations - despite their recent promises of creating “sustainable” hydropower.

Here are the stories. Are any of them near you?

Rio Grande Dam in Malaga, Spain

Bui Dam which China helped construct with Ghana

Hoover Dam in Nevada

Salma Dam, or the Afghan-India Friendship Dam

The Three Gorges Dam located on the Yangtze River in the Hubei Province of China

Hebgen Dam on the Madison River in Montana

Lao dam

Dam-building fever along the Mekong River that threatens UNESCO site Luang Prabang

Minas Gerais mining dam in Brazil

John Hart Dam in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Oldman River Dam Project in Alberta, Canada