Global South Builds Dams;
Global North Tears Them Down

by Marcia Merry Baker

[Print version of this article]

Nov. 10—Water is a man-made “natural” resource. Acting on this principle, the Global South has projects underway and in the planning stage, for many kinds of infrastructure—dams, reservoirs, canals, levees—to increase water availability for all uses, and defend against floods and droughts.

With the strengthening leadership in the Global Majority—seen dramatically last month at the BRICS-Plus meeting in Kazan, Russia—more water projects are to be expected, as credit is arranged, and resources mobilized.

The Julius Nyerere Dam and Hydroelectric Project in Tanzania, inaugurated earlier this year, exemplifies this dedication to upgrading resources. The dam will help control flooding on the Rufiji River, 120 miles long. It will store water for dry spells, and increase the nation’s electricity supply by 150%. The dam was started in 2019, and inaugurated March 2024.

There are other important projects now underway, many of which have been on the drawing boards for decades, but were stalled during the colonialist reign of the IMF, World Bank and agencies acting for the City of London and Wall Street.

Collective West: Anti-Dams, Anti-People

The prevailing outlook in the collective West is just the opposite: The goal is to prevent dams, and even demolish those that do exist, especially in Europe and the United States. There is an ugly history to this, in the eugenics movement, which justified curbing the means of existence of people—water, power, housing, health care—in order to further selective de-population.

But the milestone of this campaign was the 1992 UN Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro. There the groundwork was laid for forming the UN Committee of the Parties (COP) process, to herd nations into commitments to limit human activity for two fraudulent purposes: to reduce emissions claimed to cause the Earth to heat up and change climate; and secondly, to protect biodiversity. The UN COP for Biodiversity met for the 16th time in Cali, Colombia in October this year. The UN COP on Climate Change is meeting this month for the 29th time, in Baku, Azerbaijan, starting Nov. 11.

This week’s EIR provides reports on the death and destruction from flooding this Fall in the southeastern United States, and Valencia, Spain, all of which resulted not from climate change, but from the deadly campaign to prevent or limit water management infrastructure.

Beautiful New Dams

There are several large, major dams under construction in the Global South, and many smaller structures, critical for irrigation, as well as all other uses, especially for defense against flood and drought.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, whose construction started in 2011, is now over 90% complete. On the Blue Nile, in the Nile Basin, the dam will be 170 meters high, and 1,800 meters long, with storage capacity of 74 billion cubic meters. Besides water regulation and irrigation, the two power plants will have an installed production capacity sufficient to double the nation’s annual electricity output.

The Rogun Dam is under construction in Tajikistan. It was started in 1976, during the Soviet times, abandoned in 1993, and since revived, and now 30% completed. On the Vakhsh River, in the Amu Darya River Basin, the dam will reportedly be the tallest in the world at 335 meters, with a crest length of 800 meters. The anticipated power output will double Tajikistan’s current electricity supply.

Restore the Principles of Development

A discussion document which includes principles of development, has been in circulation for two years from the Schiller Institute, prepared by its founder and leader, Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Titled, “Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture,” the document’s sixth point states:

The new economic order must be focused on creating the conditions for modern industries and agriculture, starting with the infrastructural development of all continents….

The point continues by addressing transportation infrastructure to connect all continents into a World Land-Bridge. The premise is that economic security, including a safe future, comes from infrastructure that upgrades conditions and productivity for all peoples.

Such principles were explicitly discussed at key times in the past. At the close of World War II, for example, the book Sixty Million Jobs was released in 1945 in the United States, with prospects of how to convert the American war machine to peacetime, full-employment production, including joint projects of development around the world. It was written by Henry Wallace, President Roosevelt’s Vice-President from 1941-45 and long-time Agriculture Secretary.

Wallace called for developing all the world’s river basins as a priority. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which had built 49 dams, was a model. After listing many famous rivers on all continents, from the Indus, to the Amazon, Wallace underscored the principle, in reference to the historic Jordan River in Southwest Asia:

…Palestine’s Jordan and the vast plains which in ancient times were watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates—the challenge of these new frontiers should stimulate us for many years to come.