Opus 2025-321: The Danger in Dams

I think that we went through a time in history where our society thought that building dams to control the flow of water was a good thing.  Look at the advantages.  If you build it correctly, you can put in hydroelectric generators and provide power for your people.  You can regulate the flow to provide irrigation to farmers and ranchers and you can have the water to siphon off to cities instead of letting it run into the ocean. you can prevent floods with all the destruction that they often perpetuate.

I wonder if it isn’t time to rethink this to a degree.  I would accept that there are places where building a dam is nothing short of miraculous and beneficial.  I think of Hoover Dam and all of the blessings that is provided.  There are many other examples.  There are, however, times where I’m not sure that the blessings outweigh the curses.

And here I’m thinking of the Aswan Dam in Egypt.  Yes, it’s true that it probably generates electricity. And when they build it I’m sure that what they thought was they would control the flooding and stop the destruction of that flooding.  I’m not sure they considered what they were losing by stopping the flow of water.

If you are aware of your history, the Nile river would flood every year.  The benefit of that flood was that it spread a large layer of new, fertile soil across the fields of Egypt.  It saturated the soil with water, at least giving the farmers a head start on the long dry spell.  Those are just the obvious benefits which have been lost now that the dam is built.  Now it is a matter of fertilizer and more pumping of water than was historically necessary.

And think of the cultural benefits of that annual flood.  Geometry was developed.  Who knows what other intellectual advances were developed in order to deal with these floods.  It wouldn’t take a whole lot of planning to work around the damage that might be done.  If you know it’s coming every year at the same time, if you know how far the water will likely go, if you know when it will recede, you can make plans to come out ahead.

And think of what has been lost culturally by building the dam.  The area covered by the water was rich with archaeological treasures.  They rescued what they could, but what about the large number of remains that are irretrievably lost to our knowledge of history.  Was it worth it?

And then there’s times when we need to spiritualized on these lessons.  We look at the difficult times in life and the struggles that we have to go through.  We look at our tragedy.  Look at our failures.  If we focus just on them, it’s a gloomy picture.  If we look at the lessons learned and the strength gained and the hope for the future based on that, then it’s a different picture.  Much of it is based on our attitude and response.  If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, it gives you a perspective where Providence comes in, and your whole view of the potential of the future changes.  The government’s answer is to build another dam.   God seeks to make the soil of your life more fertile.

May the floods of your days enrich the soil of your life.  May you rise to the challenge and emerge triumphant.

homo unius libri