Re: Damming the Heaven

[Seanie]

http://vimeo.com/11894502[/video]

Movie about the Damming the White Nile river.
We had the chance to kayak there for past 4 years. Uganda and the famous river White Nile left us many emotions, we enjoyed the time spend there but the damming of our haven is the an disaster for us. So enjoy the movie like we enjoyed the time there.
Paddlers :
Peter Csonka, Nina Halasova, Vladimir Cako, Peter Scherfel, Milos Trnka, Jan Rusnak, Matej Fabianek

God, watching those kayakers, paddling in slow motion, to that dramatic music....I could barely make it entirely through that movie...

I nearly choked on the hypocrisy, white entitled westerners urging conservationism and environmentalism upon a developing country? Claiming that part of their objections to the Dam on the White Nile is based on environmental grounds. Do you hear that !?..... Thats the sound of their story ringing hollow. Ugandans deserve to have electricity, just like we have. They are generating it the most environmentally friendly way available to them.

Maybe paddlers that argue against it are just plain thick or stupid, that they cant see the sheer hypocrisy of their argument. In this case people from Ireland and the Czech Republic, both who use coal as their main source of power. Coal that's detrimental to the environment, where its mined, where its burned and where the remains are dumped. We don't surfer all of the downsides as we ship our coal from South America. I've never heard of videos being made about Moneypoint set to dramatic music and slow motion segments.

Cheap forms of generating power will always have some environmental impact, the long term impact being key. Simply weight up the cost of flooding the area above the dam, displacement of the locals and the effects of the managed water flow against the alternative, coal. Its that simple. Or maybe I'm missing the point, maybe its argument for Ugandans to simply not progress.

Either way I implore paddlers to apply some prospective and magnitude to their thinking.

[J.K.]

Wow... that's some awful tripe.
They're right, sure you'll lose Bujagali, the hump, Silverback, possibly some back channels, but not Kalagala or Special, or Club, which they show lots of footage, cos, y'know. It's cooler.
But they seem to think that it's a bad idea to build the dam because of this? They interview the comparitavely few locals who're benefiting from tdirect employment in tourism, but none of the collosal majority who should get a bit more than what the others are losing from this deal.
Sure, the majority of energy will be exported, but I'd still say that more people will benefit than will lose out. Foreigners can go fuck themselves, they can find another place to paddle.
This is a movie about some kids who had their toys taken away.

[Brian]

Thats harsh guys. The opinion is badly put across and ends up looking like selfish hypocracy, but look at it as a bunch of paddlers that are gonna miss the paddling being lost and want to put their feelings about it on film.
If you watch it and ignore the argument in the clip youre left with what i thought was some lovely footage of the area.

Simply weight up the cost of flooding the area above the dam, displacement of the locals and the effects of the managed water flow against the alternative, coal. Its that simple.

Its not that simple. Many of these rivers are located in remote regions. The effects are far greater than this. What about the road projects needed to construct and maintain the dam? What about the massive grid infrastructure needed to transport the power to where it wil be used? What happens when the dam becomes obsolete or unprofitable like so many 20th century plants now are? At what point does hydro go from providing a poor economy with much needed power to the systematic expolitation of all rivers?

[Seanie]

Thats harsh guys. The opinion is badly put across and ends up looking like selfish hypocracy, but look at it as a bunch of paddlers that are gonna miss the paddling being lost and want to put their feelings about it on film.
If you watch it and ignore the argument in the clip youre left with what i thought was some lovely footage of the area.

No, no, thats what Max Bilbow did. Watch this and then contrast it with the other movie.
http://www.maxbilbow.com/?p=95

Its not that simple. Many of these rivers are located in remote regions. The effects are far greater than this. What about the road projects needed to construct and maintain the dam? What about the massive grid infrastructure needed to transport the power to where it wil be used? What happens when the dam becomes obsolete or unprofitable like so many 20th century plants now are?

Sorry but both improved roads and an improved power grid seem like massively positive things to me.

Ardnacrusha in Clare has been going since 1929, I dont see them getting rid of it anytime soon. Would you really be in favour of taking an Ardnacrusha away from Uganda? ..remember this is a developing country. And there doesn't seem to be a viable alternative to hydro available to them, unless you think not generating more power is an option.

At what point does hydro go from providing a poor economy with much needed power to the systematic expolitation of all rivers?

When its happening in a developed country with other options available to it.