Today is National Water Day and it should be a national objective to look at rivers with more respect, to recognize the importance that rivers that run to the sea, without dams or barriers, have for our safety and reserves.
Nowadays, there are more sustainable and even more advantageous alternatives to dams, either for energy production or for water supply, based on the assumption that rivers run again without being dammed and thus manage to apply all their functions ecological.
Dams are not as necessary as we thought, nor are they a clean source of energy. In addition to contributing to the increased erosion of beaches and many of its reservoirs emitting greenhouse gases, aggravating climate change, as dams also have several negative impacts on river connectivity and biodiversity. Alongside the risks arising from the limited life of the infrastructure itself, often becoming obsolete or even dangerous after billiards before, how dams can even lead to the local extinction of many species of freshwater ecosystems.
That flowing rivers tend to have more socio-economic benefits than dams has become evident decades ago in the United States, where the movement began “Dam Removal”(Removal of river barriers). Nowadays, this movement it is already a reality throughout most of Europe, with obsolete river barrier points already removed (more than 100 in 2020 alone), being considered an economically efficient operation.
Following the trend, our Spanish neighbors have already removed more than 70 obsolete barriers in the Douro basin alone, including a dam with a wall of more than 30 meters. Over here, it looks like we’re paddling in the opposite direction. Contrary to the general meaning of the Water Framework Directive and the European Ecological Pact, which includes an EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the intention to remove obsolete river barriers to free up at least 25,000 kilometers of rivers, the Portuguese government announced recently the construction of another dam (Crato Multipurpose Hydraulic Use Project).
Portugal is very late in this process or is not yet fully convinced of the importance of removing itself as barriers on rivers. Five years ago, the Portuguese government had focused interest in the topic, having even created a specific working group to identify, study and supervise the removal of obsolete hydraulic infrastructure (publicly accessible report on here), and announced that it would remove river barriers for the first time in Portugal. In 2018, the APA pointed to the removal of two dams in the Douro, following the goal of dismantling 10 dams (eight in the Guadiana basin and two in the Douro basin), included by the Portuguese government in the National Dam Plan. However, to date, only three have been removed and there is no news as to whether and how the Government wants to move in this direction.
Portugal has a clear opportunity to distinguish itself, taking advantage of the tide followed by most European countries, and start paddling against the dams. But intention is not enough, it is essential for Portugal to take clear steps, for example, working with the private sector and mobilizing unused European proceeding and investment funds for the creation of freshwater ecosystem restoration programs, including dam removal measures , generating positive financial returns for communities and investors. It will be equally important to reduce the costs of maintenance and use of water in the dams, including through the application of taxes for the volumes of water used by irrigation. Other measures, such as promoting better treatment and reuse of wastewater, allowing effluents to be decontaminated and discharged back into rivers, give demand for clean water to less noble uses. Now more than ever, it is imperative to combat the undisciplined and exaggerated use of this precious and finite resource.
The measures are there and are not that complex to implement. It takes will and agenda for Portugal to do what it competes at European level in removing national dams, ensuring healthy rivers for the benefit of all of us.
It remains to be seen to what extent our decision makers intend to row against dams in Portugal. Become aware that rivers are like the veins of the planet and fulfill them free – remembering a famous phrase “panta king the potamos”(Everything flows like a river) by Heraclitus – It should be the responsibility and concern of those who want to guarantee a future for themselves and for the next generations.