Paris: By 2050, more than half of the world’s population will pass tens of thousands of large dams near or far from their intended destination, according to a United Nations report released on Friday.
According to the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health Research, most of the world’s 59,000 large dams – built between 1930 and 1970 – were built between 50 and 100 years old.
“This is an emerging global threat that we are not yet addressing,” Vladimir Samakhtin, co-author and director of the institute, told AFP. “The number of dams at risk has been growing year by year, and for decades.”
A well-designed, built and maintained dam can easily run for centuries. But many of the world’s largest dams fail to meet one or more of these standards. The report warns that over the past two decades, dozens of people in the United States, India, Brazil, Afghanistan and other countries have suffered major losses or total collapse, and the number of such failures has risen. May increase
Reducing the threat in ways that have yet to be fully measured is global warming. “Due to climate change, the incidence of heavy rainfall and flooding is increasing,” lead author Domanda Pereira, a researcher at the University of Ottawa and McMaster University, said in an interview.
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