Cali, Colombia Might Need Daniel Beard

The dam building era in the United States started in 1935 with the completion of the Hover Dam.  After this, the Bureau of Reclamation built more dams on more bodies of water than any other organization in the world.  More importantly, this government agency influenced water politics world wide and contributed greatly to the global culture of damming (and damning) the world's rivers.   Interestingly enough Daniel Beard, a former commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, has become an avid protester of dams, declaring the era of dam building in the U.S "over".  Pearce elaborates:

"He cut a startling figure. Daniel Beard, the recently retired commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S government agency that has built more large dams on more rivers than any other body in the world, had taken off his suit and donned a T-shirt and was striding through the streets of Nagaragawa in southern Japan at the head of a thousand protesters.  He was yelling, 'No more dams'" ( Ch. 15, para. 1). 

Pearce writes about Mr. Beard's participation in this demonstration to illustrate how dated the ideas of dams are in the current economic and environmental atmosphere.  Pearce quotes Beard as saying at this event, "This is one of the most awful dam projects I have ever seen- and I've seen some....It will supply water that nobody needs, will probably destroy a salmon fishery on a beautiful river, and may actually increase the risk of flooding." 

Mr. Beard has been converted from dam builder to dam protester for good reason.  Dams, at this point in time, are considered rather environmentally and economical unsound.  Besides belching uncanny amounts of methane and reeking havoc on ecosystems, they generally are not good economic investments. 

However, none of this increasingly common knowledge is influencing Emcali, a company based in Cali, Colombia, who is considering building a dam on the Cali river.  Although I do not know the details of the project, I believe it is highly unlikely that this will be a sound economic or environmentally friendly decision. 

You can find a brief article on the matter here.