Task 1: Organise the statement into advantages and disadvantages of water transfer projects.
Due to increased water
supply, residents in
receiving basins may
benefit from boosted
agricultural and industry
development (PME)
Increase pollution and
nutrient concentrations
due to low flow (can lead
to long term changes to
local and regional
hydrology).
High construction costs can
lead to increased water
prices that exceed the
paying ability of target
groups (create economic
scarcity).
High costs increase
dependency.
High risk in a climate uncertain
world and economic uncertain
world (source area may be giving
away water it will not be able to
afford to be without if climate
change alters their own supply or
if there is economic change in
the region, increasing demand).
Can lead to future scarcity.
Maybe nationally beneficial –
Snowy Mountain Scheme in
Australia transfers water to the
drought prone Murray Darling
Basin which produces 1/3 of the
nations food including 100% of
Australian rice and 96% of their
cotton.
Reduces pressure on
groundwater sources in recipient
areas
Risk of leakage (poor
maintenance)
Risk of conflict and Can be energy intensive as
Tragedy of the often require pumping so
Commons. create a potential climate
change issue (long term
increases water crisis).
Improves water Risk of evaporation losses
quality in recipient
areas
Facilitate the spread Maybe less
of pollutants and environmentally damaging
invasive species. than alternatives. The Ebro
Scheme in Spain was
abandoned and replaced
with 20 desalinisation
plants!
Supports ecosystem Increase salinisation and
restorations desertification due to low
measures flow (esp. in hotter
climates).
In receiving area greater
supply doesn’t mean
sensible use, can just lead
to greater use, promotes
unsustainable farming
practices or industrial
growth.
Critical to the water-food-
energy nexus (water critical
in all stages of food/energy
production) so critical to
global development
Environmental
deterioration in donating
basins may lead to a
reduction in income and
lead to involuntary or
uncompensated
resettlement of local
communities.
Supply area can get good
compensation for water
they are not even using eg.
Melamchi Project in Nepal
diverts water into
Kathmandu Basin in return
the Melamchi get health
and education services
provided.
1) Water transfers
Involve the diversion of water from one drainage basin to another (called an inter-basin transfer)
either by diverting the river itself or constructing a large canal to carry water from an area of
surplus (can cause flows to drop 60%) to an area of deficit.
Pros Cons
 https://www.internetgeography.net/topics/the-south-north-water-transfer-project-in-china/
Precipitation rates in China
Beijing region has 35% of China’s
population, 40% of its arable land
50% of the population in but only 7% of its water
the north

In Beijing per capita water

supply is at the same level as
in Saudi Arabia, 100m3 per
person a year, the water table
has fallen by 300m since 1970
and 60% of river water is
polluted

80% of water in the

south

“The south has plenty of water, but the north is dry. If we could borrow some, that would be
good.” (Mao Zedong leader of China c. 1952)
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/12/china-water-diversion-project-beijing-displaced-farmers
Task 2: South-North Water Transfer
On the next slide:
• Mark on Beijing, Danjiangkou, Pingdingshan,
Tianjin, Hubei Province and Shanghai.
• Label the major rivers to map (Yangtze, Yellow
and Han)
• Mark on the western route, central route and
eastern route onto the map.
• Cut out the labels (slide 7) and annotate your
map with this information.
Eg. The South-North Water Diversion, a £48-100bn (60% central government, 40% local
government via charging for water), 2,400km network of canals and tunnels, designed to divert
12 trillion gallons of water annually from China’s humid south to its parched, industrialised north
via linking the countries 4 major rivers (Yangtze, Yellow, Huai and Hai). Begun in 2003, expected
to be completed in 2053.
About 345,000 villagers have been
displaced by the construction of the
Danjiangkou reservoir.
370km2 of land will be submerged
The government created Heba New
Migrant Village in Pingdingshan for
displaced villages.. A different dialect is
spoken there.
The city of Pingsinshan has greatly
benefited from increased water supply.
In 2013 The middle line was able to
deliver more than 50million cubic metres
of water to Pingdingshan; Gov said it
“effectively relieving the scarce water
supply of Pingdingshan city’s one million-
plus residents”.
Danjiangkou reservoir – water level
raised 14m
The project could destroy the Han River, Many people in Hubei Province are still impacted
an important tributary of the Yangtze – by water shortage. In 2011, five months of
about 40% of the river’s water will drought in Hubei province left 315,000 people
eventually be diverted north, despite short of drinking water
acute water shortages that already
plague the cities along its banks Banner displayed in Heba New Migratn Village - a
newly construction town, built to rehouse people.
Reduces risk of overabstraction of
groundwater and northern water
shortages (in Beijing water table falls
5m a year due to overabstraction
Rural people are not able to access the water
transferred in this scheme. Villagers living
outside of Pingdinghan rely on groundwater for
bathing and cooking. In previous years, they
could dig 20 metres to reach the aquifer. In
2015 even 80-metre wells are running dry.
It reads: “Supporting the South-North Water
Cracks appear in the floor of a new Diversion is an unshakeable duty.”
home in Heba New Migrant Village. ,
built for people displaced by the
reservoir New water that is/will be supplied is expensive so
often use dominated by industry and domestic
needs of population remain unmet so they will
continue to abstract groundwater

Fails to address route causes of scarcity (over

The western line remains largely
conceptual. It is so grand in scale that it
may ultimately prove impossible to build,
runs through tectonically active area.
1,150km eastern line runs from the
lower Yangtze River to Tianjin, it began
delivering water in 2013.
demand, poor conservation, pollution of supplies,
inefficient agriculture) and provision of water
means people will go on using poor water
management
In last 20 years there have been two droughts in
the Yangtze Basin (supply area), with the transfer
project in future years this could cause scarcity

South’s development potential limited by reduced water supply

2) Mega dams
Nearly 60% of the world’s major rivers are impeded by large dams. In 2020 there were 900000 dams
worldwide (40000 mega dams).

The 5000 mega dams have the capacity to store 18% of annual global runoff, which in theory would
be a panacea to solve the world water supply issue, particularly due to their multi purpose nature
(irrigation, HEP – especially with climate change concerns and an increasing political green agenda,
flood control, recreation). However dams come with significant evaporation losses and pollution to
reduce water quality, in addition to social and environmental concerns.
The general benefits include irrigation (1/2 world’s dams built for this purpose and they contribute up
to 16% of world food production), electricity (1/6 th) , flood control and water supply but they often
come with a debt burden, cost overrun (on average by 50% and water sales in LICs/NEEs rarely cover
the costs), people are displaced and impoverished (during construction local communities often
starved of development and welfare investment as all money is diverted to the project) and
important ecosystems are damaged as rivers are fragmented (Environmental Impact Analyses are
relatively new). Invariably the costs and benefits are not equitable shared.
In HICs the most technically attractive sites have all been developed but their value is increasingly
called into question. More water evaporates from reservoirs than is used (7% more) and there are
ongoing maintenance costs (ie. Sediment dredging to maintain volume). Consequently the World
Commission on Dams report stated only dams that significantly advance human welfare should be
built – thus they must be economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable.

Task 3: Read the information on mega dams on slides 9 and 10, answer the questions in red
(just two sentences for each answer).
 8. River Regime of the Nile: The Threat of Mega Dams
River Nile discharge is highly seasonal due to
monsoons feeding the Blue Nile causing peak flow July
to September. This causes the Nile to have a natural
flood/drought cycle. While this is challenging for
commercial agriculture and government
industrialisation plans, it did support subsistence
farmers (NB. In Egypt 50% and in South Sudan 70% of
the population rely on agriculture for income).
Dams on the Nile have fundamentally changed the river regime as evidence from Egypt’s Aswan
Dam indicate. 1. Is damming the Nile socially sustainable?
NB. Aswan Dam finished 1970

Drought/flood cycle eradicated in place

of a more uniform discharge all year with
only slight monsoon peaks.
But as more countries try to dam parts of the Nile, the seasonal regime could be removed
entirely AND overall discharge significantly reduced. This is because storage in reservoirs behind
dams, in this hot, arid and semi-arid river basin, leads to huge evaporation rates (over 50% for
example is evaporated from the Sudd Wetlands in South Sudan due to the slow flow).
2. Are dams always a good solution to improving water QUANTITY?
 8. River Regime of the Nile: Pre and Post Aswan High Dam
Effects on River Systems
Reducing the flow of water from a river changes the landscape it flows
through, which in turn can affect the ecosystem’s flora and fauna. A dam
holds back sediments, especially the heavy gravel and cobbles. The river,
deprived of its sediment load, seeks to recapture it by eroding the
downstream channel and banks, undermining bridges and other riverbank
structures. Riverbeds are typically eroded by several meters within a decade
of first closing a dam; the damage can extend for tens or even hundreds of
kilometers below a dam. Within nine years of closing Hoover Dam in the US,
the riverbed below the dam had lowered by more than 4 meters. Riverbed
deepening will also lower the groundwater table along a river, threatening
vegetation and local wells in the floodplain and requiring crop irrigation in
places where there was previously no need. The depletion of riverbed
gravels reduces habitat for many fish that spawn in the gravelly river
bottom, and for invertebrates such as insects, molluscs and crustaceans.
Changes in the physical habitat and hydrology of rivers are implicated in
93% of freshwater fauna declines in North America.
Before the Aswan High Dam, the Nile River carried about 124 million tons of
sediment to the sea each year, depositing nearly 10 million tons on the
floodplain and delta. Today, 98% of that sediment remains behind the dam.
The result has been a drop in soil productivity and depth, among other
serious changes to Egypt’s floodplain agriculture. The Aswan Dam has also
led to serious coastal erosion, another problem stemming from the loss of
sediments in a dammed river. Another example of this problem is along the
mouth of the Volta River in Ghana. Akosombo Dam has cut off the supply of
sediment to the Volta Estuary, affecting also neighboring Togo and Benin,
whose coasts are now being eaten away at a rate of 10–15 meters per year.
A project to strengthen the Togo coast has cost US$3.5 million for each
kilometer protected. The story is the same on coastline after coastline
where dams have stopped a river’s sediments.
Hydrological Effects
Dams also change the pattern of the flow of a river, both
reducing its overall volume and changing its seasonal
variations. The nature of the impacts depends on the
design, purpose and operation of the dam, among other
things. All parts of a river’s ecology can be impacted by
changes to its flow.
A river’s estuary, where fresh water meets the sea, is a
particularly rich ecosystem. Some 80% of the world’s
fish catch comes from these habitats, which depend on
the volume and timing of nutrients and fresh water. The
alteration of the flows reaching estuaries because of
dams and diversions is a major cause of the precipitous
decline of sea fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, the Black
and Caspian Seas, California’s San Francisco Bay, the
Eastern Mediterranean and others. The regulation of
the Volta River in Ghana by the Akasombo and Kpong
dams has led to the disappearance of the once–thriving
clam industry at the river’s estuary, as well as the
serious decline of barracuda and other sport fish.
4. Why has the clam industry in Ghana collapsed?

3. Summarise the problems dams can cause downstream.

Now imagine if downstream was
transboundary…India/Bangladesh…
 Tensions on the Nile: Egypt and
Ethiopia
Egypt currently experiences water physical
water scarcity and by 2030 precipitation
levels are predicted to drop a further 10-
20%.

With a huge and fast Egypt’s economic

growing population of development was based
78 million Ethiopia entirely on irrigated
needs to develop agriculture supported by
irrigated farming to extracting huge quantities
support its population of water from the Nile.
and develop its
economy (represents
47% of its GDP)

Ethiopia emerges from years of civil war

and famine as a growing economy it is
increasingly tapping into the water
resources of the Nile
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-af
rica-26679225
Task 4: To complete a case study on the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam.

To include:
A map Does this sound familiar…?
How much does it cost? I don’t expect you to redo the same
Why is it built? piece of work, but I do expect you to
transfer your learning from the conflicts
Who benefits from its completion? lesson and apply it here…
Why does Egypt object?
What is the current agreement between the two countries?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26679225

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/19/africa/ethiopia-new-dam-t
hreatens-egypts-water/index.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43170408
3) Desalination Plants
There has been a global boom in desalinisation which draws supplies from the oceans rather
than the 1% of freshwater available on Earth. Although desalinisation has been done for
centuries, recent technological breakthroughs such as reverse osmosis have made the process
more cost effective, less energy intensive and made it easier to implement on a large scale. And
with the advent of carbon nanotube membranes reducing costs even further, while scarcity is
driving freshwater costs up from all other sources, desalinisation could become the ultimate
technofix. Currently there are 21000 desalinisation plants around the world, supplying 300
million people. In 2022 Israel provided 85% of its water needs through desalinisation. Growing
at an exponential rate but concentrated in water stressed, technologically advanced, HICs
countries eg Saudi, UAE, Kuwait, USA, Spain, Japan.
Pros
Provide a reliable and predictable supply of water which supports economic development (particularly FDI in the agriculture sector).
Proven, effective and high quality water.
Allows current freshwater to be conserved which will help with longer term water restoration schemes (the more you have to work
with, the easier these are – next lesson…)
Its not dependent on changing factors. One huge problem with many proposed solutions to the ever-increasing water demand is that
they heavily rely on uncontrollable factors. For example, more water reservoirs would presuppose that they need rain or snowfall to
be filled up. However, desalination does not rely on anything aside from the ocean. With concerns surrounding the melting of the
polar ice caps and the rise of the sea levels, nobody would be worried about the ocean disappearing anytime soon.

Cons
However there are major environmental concerns:
Eg. Left over water from the desalinisation process has twice the salt concentration of sea water. Dumping it near shorelines has
adverse impacts on coral reefs and foodwebs. In creating fresh water out of seawater, salt in the water is needed to be removed—a
process that produces brine that is so rich in salt that it can contaminate any environment where it is placed. The brine is very strong
that it can kill wildlife and vegetation should it comes into contact with them. Aside from this, there are usually anti-scaling agents and
chlorine-removing chemicals in the brine as well.
Or…
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya and the UAE are all in the top 10 of countries using desalinisation. They are also fossil fuel rich so have a
cheap supply of energy to distil freshwater from the oceans. Using carbon emitting fossil fuels to solve the water crisis is surely a case
of robbing Peter to pay Paul…In Israel each desalinisation plant they have requires it own power station to run (lots of solar used
because they don’t have the cheap fossil fuels of the OPEC nations).
And economically its not a perfect solution:
For the average desalination plant these days, it takes 2 kilowatt hours of energy in order to produce 1 cubic meter of fresh water
(down from 20(!) in 1970) - Nevertheless, desalination represented about 25% of the energy consumed by the water sector. Though
this would translate to a cost of just under 2 dollars on a lot of power grids, the real production cost comes from the expenditure of
fossil fuels that are needed to create electricity for its process. Additionally the initial set up costs are huge. Transfers might be
cheaper- one needs to lift the water by 2000 m, or transport it over more than 1600 km to get transport costs equal to the
desalination costs. But for coastal cities it is increasingly an economically competitive choice.
It’s not a solution for all:
Continental interiors, a long way from the sea can’t use this solution (and they are often some of the most water scarce places in the
world.
In 2008, Israel teetered on the edge of
catastrophe. A decade-long drought had
scorched the Fertile Crescent
The Sea of Galilee, had dropped
to within inches of the “black line”
at which irreversible salt
infiltration would flood the lake
and ruin it forever

Israel needs about

1.9 billion cubic
meters of
freshwater per year

It gets just 1.4

Water restrictions billion cubic meters
were imposed, (1.8 billion cubic
and many farmers yards) from natural
lost a years crops sources

Source:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/
The solution:

Desalination plants
Sorek Desalination plant
Desalinsation works by pushing saltwater into
membranes containing microscopic pores. The
water gets through, while the larger salt
molecules are left behind.

Israel
has developed a
chemical-free
system using
porous lava stone
to capture the
microorganisms
before they reach
the membranes
Israel has built the largest Water from Mediterranean sea is
reverse-osmosis transformed into enough
desalination facility in the drinking water to supply 1.5
world at Sorek million people.

Israel now gets 55

percent of its
domestic water from
desalination, and that
has helped to turn
one of the world’s
driest countries into
the unlikeliest of
water giants.

“The only country [in the Middle East] that isn’t suffering
acute water stress is Israel.”
Economic factors.

Desalination is
expensive. Sorek cost
$500 million.
Nonetheless, water
produced by
desalination costs just
a third of what it did
in the 1990s.

Sorek can
produce a Israeli households
thousand litres of pay about US$30 a
drinking water for month for their
58 cents water — similar to
households in most
U.S. cities, and far
less than Las Vegas
(US$47) or Los
It requires vast Angeles (US$58).
amounts of electricity.
Israel supplies the West Bank with water,
as required by the 1995 Oslo II Accords,
but the Palestinians still receive far less
than they need.

There is a planned joint

venture between Israel
and Jordan to build a large
desalination plant on the
Red Sea, where they share
a border, and divide the
water among Israelis,
Jordanians and the
Palestinians.

Israel and Jordan have a long, complex history of

disagreements. However, the need to cooperate to meet
their water needs could begin a positive relationship.
 Task 5: Using all the information in slides
14-22:
Is desalination a viable option for every country facing
water stress?

Why might desalination lead to peace in the Middle East?

Is desalinisation climate change proof?

Are there any environmental concerns?

Hard Engineering…a final evaluation
Technofixes, hard engineering adaptations and
innovations, have a role to play in meeting the
mounting threats to freshwater supplies that
cannot be overlooked. Equally however it
cannot be overstated as they cannot be
regarded as fully sustainable.