Dams and disease : ecological design and health impacts of large dams, canals, and irrigation systems

592 Pages·1999·17.076 MB·English

by  Jobin, William R

Dams and Disease
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Dams and Disease
Eoclogical design and health impacts of large dams,
canals and irrigation systems
William Jobin

London and New York
First published 1999 by E & FN Spon
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
E & FN Spon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

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© 1999 William Jobin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
The publisher makes no representation, express or implied,
with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this
book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for
any errors or omissions that may be made.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Jobin, William R.
Ecological design and health impacts of large dams, canals and
irrigation systems/William Jobin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-419-22360-6
1. Hydraulic engineering—Environmental aspects. 2. Hydraulic
engineering—Health aspects. I. Title.
TD195.H93J63 1999
627–dc21 98–30320
CIP
ISBN 0-203-47718-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-419-22360-6 (Print Edition)
Contents

Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix

1
PART I Health opportunities

1 Introduction 3

2 General ecological aspects of dams and canals 12

3 Predicting health impacts in the Tropics 28

4 Water-associated diseases 60

5 Health opportunities through ecological design 74

85
PART II The Americas

6 North America 88

7 Caribbean region 95

8 South America 170

179
PART III West Africa

9 Morocco 181

10 Senegal River 194

11 Niger River 248

12 Volta River 271
286
PART IV The River Nile and the Horn of Africa

13 River Nile 289

14 Eritrea 365

15 Somalia 387

415
PART V Southern Africa

16 Zambezi River 417

17 Sabi River Basin in Zimbabwe 425

433
PART VI Middle East and Asia

18 Iran 435

19 Pakistan 444

20 Asia 459

472
PART VII Final summary

21 Final synthesis and specific guidelines 474

22 Appendix: ecology of major diseases associated with water in the Tropics 509

Glossary of chemical names 568
Index 569
Preface
Water is a key health and environmental resource. Unfortunately in the Tropics, water
resources have been developed recently in ways which cause disease and other social and
environmental problems. After engineers have carelessly designed and constructed many
of these water projects, other people responsible for the health, social and environmental
sectors have had to implement remedial measures, at great expense. This irrational
procedure cannot be allowed to continue while malaria, AIDS, and other newly emerging
tropical diseases are on the rampage in the Tropics, and where the environment is under
intense assault from exploding populations.
I propose in this book that water resources be deliberately developed in ways that
promote health and social well-being, without detriment to the environment. This
approach will avoid the negative impacts of large dams, canals and irrigation systems
which now afflict us in the second half of the 20th century. It is not a new approach; it
was at the heart of many large water projects in the past, especially those which have
endured.
My proposal calls for a restructuring of the UN family of organizations which deal
with water and health. It is made in the spirit of opening new approaches for the UN
system, which is in deep trouble.
A classical example of the healthy version of water resource development is shown by
the multiple dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the USA, constructed at a time
when malaria was a major scourge of the southern USA. By careful pre-project
investigations and by coordinated design and operation of their 30 reservoirs, malaria was
eradicated from this valley before the biocide DDT* and the drug chloroquine* were
even available. Malaria has not returned to the valley in over half a century. Thoughtful
environmental manipulation of the reservoirs has allowed them to continue to produce
hydroelectric power, to prevent floods, and to serve as major sources of water recreation
to the present day.
Compare this with recent dams and irrigation projects which the World
* A glossary of chemical names is provided on page 573. Proprietary and generic names are used
throughout the book.
Bank is supporting in the Senegal River Basin of West Africa, destroying the
communities they were built to save, through ignorant design and greedy operation.
In the temperate zones of our globe, environmental and social impact analyses focus on
equitable compensation for land-taking, and on minimizing environmental damages. In
the tropical zones, however, the issue is more often human survival. Many of the resettled
communities from large tropical dams have simply disappeared, due to the trauma of
losing their homelands. Children and elderly people die most quickly, others face a
lingering and uncertain threat of poverty and malnutrition.
Despite the best attempts of its environmental staff, and despite admirable programmes
and policies, perhaps the biggest failure in this field is the World Bank. Starting with
preliminary guidelines in the early 1980s, the World Bank has now developed an
admirable set of social and environmental directives for development projects, especially
those related to water resources. Nonetheless, recent World Bank water projects have
come to represent the worst in unhealthy and socially destructive enterprises. There must
be a better way.
With the incentive of the re-occurring disasters in the last half-century, I propose a new
way in this book. My proposal is based on experience in Africa and the Americas while
investigating and trying to improve health conditions on new and existing irrigation and
hydroelectric projects. This proposal is radical, and assumes a great deal of effort will be
extended by international groups.
I hope that the tragic dramas documented in the following pages will motivate you, the
reader, to seriously consider my proposal for the World Health Organization and the
World Bank. We have to find a better way.
WILLIAM JOBIN
Dolores, Colorado
July 1998
Acknowledgements
This book has been supported by several editors with E & FN Spon. I am grateful to Nick
Clarke, Tim Robinson, Tony Moore, Richard Whitby and Michael Doggwiler for their
patience and guidance during these last two years. I am especially grateful to Chuck
Hollingworth for the creativity, care, insight and good humour he exhibited in correcting
errors and improving the manuscript, although any remaining mistakes are my own.
If there is real value in this book for improving the health of people in the Tropics, it is
due to the guidance and inspiration I received from my Iranian friends in the World
Health Organization, sometimes known affectionately as the Persian Mafia—Hushang
Rafatjah, Rashed Bahar, Fereydoun Arfaa, the late A.H.Taba, and the late N.Ansari.
Despite the rumours, M.Reza Shah Pahlevi was not a member of the Mafia. For the real
story about bilharzia in Egypt and Africa, I have always depended on K.Y.Chu and Ralph
Klumpp.
Sometimes my family is amused that I see the world in terms of rivers and river
valleys. Once I made a Christmas videotape that dwelled for quite a time on the Dolores
River near my home in Colorado. My daughters laughed. But they shouldn’t be surprised;
rivers have been the setting for some of my most important life experiences.
As a child I played with my brothers and buddies every summer on the banks of Salt
Creek, a turbid tributary of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Those were glorious days
of youth, often passed in falling off our makeshift rafts, getting stuck in the muddy
shallows, exploring the river.
As a teenager I was baptized by immersion in holy waters of northern Illinois, only to
re-experience real baptism and spiritual rebirth along the banks of the Charles River in
Massachusetts when I started to live in the cold, cruel world, by myself.
Both Salt Creek and the Charles River were horribly polluted rivers in my youth. Their
condition caused me to doubt the wisdom of my teachers and professors at MIT. If they
were so smart, why do they live and teach along such filthy rivers?
An experience which radically changed my life occurred in the spring of 1964 when I
walked across the lazily meandering Selma River with Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and
10000 other people. Although we knew Death would come that day, we did not fear it as
we crossed over that small, lazy river in the cottonlands of Alabama. Three of us were
killed, but I will never forget the powerful sensation that God was with us—and them—
as we made the crossing. He took away our fear and lifted us across that river.
My first introduction to the joys of field research on tropical diseases in Puerto Rico
came from the late Fred Ferguson, and from Henry Negron-Aponte, Bill Rowan and
Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben. However, they taught me so much about bilharzia that I never dared
to go swimming and splashing in the creeks and lakes of that beautiful tropical island.
Then, in Khartoum during 1978 I wrestled with the Ground of All Being over my
future, along the banks of the Blue Nile. He was calling me to risk my family, my career,