Big Dams are Big Government Control of Nature and People

Vandana Shivas book

” Water Wars” written 24 years ago lists with dismay, the bad effects socially and ecologically , of the big dams around the world and the imposition of Big Government removing thousands of small farmer villages and that way of life, often placing sweet country people where they die or have to leave. These folks ancestors managed the natural flow of streams and shallow communal wells, for perfect seasonal balance with Nature.

Big rivers dams flood beautiful mountain valleys now , and the people are moved to harsh environments, meant to be served by an infrastructure of pipes and pumps, which often breaks down, and they must count on government bringing them tanker trucks of water , or move or die.

Building a dam let’s you take the water from the lake ,pouring it with gravity and pumps to another place or just keep it in your tank selfishly.

The resevoir made out of a river valley which used to have villages and small farms along both banks.

Industrial farming with this dam irrigation is paid for by loans from the World Bank, involving big time politics . Water in a tank or pipe is now a quantity with a monetary value/gallon.

A country fan take it and move it in pipes to another place.

Up river countries can take almost all the water for their food irrigation and nw, for their AI computer data centers.

So ” The dam means Power- Who has the Water has the Power. “

Is water 💧 owned by all of us, in the Commons anymore ?

The people rise up and protest the Privatization of water, and the government control of water, and the cultural differentiation of who gets to have water and thrive.

The people ask their governments to support them, make sure they have water, first,enough to simply live simply with a small garden plot for food , a field for grains like wheat, and oats, in Subsistence farming .

Next to be farmers of market crops to sell to others, next to have industries that use water 💧

And their own government may have to fight wars over their Water Rights.

The future will be filled with wars waged over Water , until we achieve ecological balance.

As the global warming is changing the expected weather patterns, we must adapt to Water Scarcity Mode.

We must conserve water and not waste it. We must set up personal systems to filter and clean the water we get, and each must learn to save rain water in our own catchment reservoirs, Basins, ponds, tanks and barrels for use in drytimes.