Water

Dams and Development E-Paper Contents

p. 36 of 74 BACK | NEXT Home Page of Dams and Development Foreword I. Why an e-paper on dams and development? II. Assessing options III. Participatory processes IV. Social impacts V. Environmental impacts Strategic environmental assessment International environmental conventions Environmental flows Cumulative impacts Cultural assessments Health assessments Greenhouse gas emissions Mitigation measures Hydropower industry's approach What do ADB policies say? VI. Benefit distribution VII. Dam safety and sustainability VIII. Existing projects IX. Improving governance X. What other organizations say XI. ADB, Dams, and Development XII. References Contact Us

Some examples of mitigation measures

Mitigation measures are the fundamental components of environmental management plans for impacts that cannot be avoided.

Experience with mitigating environmental impacts has been mixed, see for example the global review of the World Commission on Dams: Chapter 3 on Environmental Performance , ‘..efforts to avoid or minimize impacts through choice of alternative projects or alternative designs were more successful than efforts to manage the impacts once they were built into the design of the dam’.

A review of mitigation, compensation and enhancement measures undertaken by the International Energy Agency in 2000 summarized ten areas, six mitigation measures for biophysical measures (reservoir impoundment, loss of biological diversity, reservoir sedimentation, modifications of water quality, modification of hydrological regimes, barriers for fish migration and river navigation) and four for socioeconomic issues (involuntary displacement, public health risks, impacts on vulnerable minority groups, sharing of development benefits).

For information on some new approaches, see also:

• Fish passes and reservoir fisheries – do they work?
• Biodiversity conservation

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