Since the 19th century, dams have been built all over Europe.
A dam is a man-made barrier in a river, designed to store millions of liters of water reserves for drinking water or irrigation purposes and/or to generate electricity.
The core of the dam consists of a non-permeable material such as clay or concrete. Both sides of the core are lined with stones, sand and clay. Very occasionally, the dam is made of granite.
The construction of these dams has cost a fortune. Several billions in the currency of the time equals a multiple of billions today. Besides, in addition to the cost of building those dams, an awful lot of house and land owners have also been expropriated. Entire villages have had to disappear for the greater good and have been completely submerged. They can only be visited by occasional divers.
Belgium has many dams, especially in the Ardennes, owned either by the government or electricity companies such as Electrabel.
The Lac la Gilleppe reservoir, near Jalhay, covers 13 hectares and supplies the region with drinking water and electricity. The dame is one of a kind and built in granite.
The Coo Reservoir is one of Belgium's most important hydropower plants.
The five-lake dam that makes up Les Lacs de l'Eau d'Heure supplies the entire region with water. The same goes for the Bütgenbach, Robertville and Eupen dams ( which we are all familiar with given that this is the dam that was fully opened in July 2021 and exacerbated the disaster in the Ardennes many times over.
However, since 2020, a lot of dams across Europe have been demolished again !
In 2020 : at least 101 in 16 EU countries including 1 in Belgium
In 2021 : 239 in 17 EU countries
In 2022 : 325 in 16 EU countries ( or 36% more than the previous year )
In 2023 the removal continues at high speed.
Several factors are reported to have contributed to the new figures, such as newly available funding opportunities, including the - how could it be otherwise - EU-funded " Open Rivers Program " https://openrivers.eu/, , the coordinated efforts of national and regional government agencies to report on removed barriers, and the hype generated by the findings of the report circulated across Europe last year.
What is the tenor of that report ?
"It has been found that more than 1.2 million barriers fragment Europe's rivers and many of them are obsolete. Among the various harmful effects is the loss of biodiversity, with a 93% decline in populations of migrating freshwater fish in Europe and 76% globally. The alarming figures call for cost-effective and efficient solutions to restore rivers.
Dam removal has paved the way for nature restoration - a trend confirmed in Dam Removal Europe's annual reports.
Today, Europe's waterways are clogged by numerous dams and other barriers. Many of these structures, some hundreds of years old, provide irrigation, energy and other benefits. Many others are abandoned and obsolete. Regardless of their utility, the presence of these barriers has a serious adverse effect on fish, other wildlife and people.
"With wildlife along European rivers in long-term decline, dam removal has already proven to be the most environmentally friendly and cost-effective measure for river restoration," says Rewilding Europe director Frans Schepers.
Rivers have always provided fundamental and vital services for people and the environment. However, dams disrupt the natural functioning of rivers and can lead to widespread degradation of fish and other river fauna. For these reasons, it is necessary to remove these barriers to return rivers to their natural, free-flowing state.
Are they only now - after a good 150 years - finding out that dams impede river flow and are harmful to nature and biodiversity ? Has the " serious effect " on fish stocks and the " losses " been studied, measured and mapped or is it again wet-finger work ?
And what about water resources ? The EU is screaming blue murder about global warming and water shortages due to extreme drought, and then just now in the context of the SDGs and Agenda 2030 and obviously not coincidentally since 2020, they are going to demolish all the dams resulting in loss of water in the reservoirs ?
What about electricity supplies ? Nuclear power plants must close but everything must run on electricity in a near future including cars, buses, trucks, home heating, etc.
Many of the demolished dams were located near lakes that were important power plants that supplied electricity to the whole region. That too has fallen away. What now ? How are they going to compensate for that ?
One can hardly but conclude that they are deliberately creating water shortages and equally deliberately worsening the shortage of electricity.
( Note : Agenda 2030 is a plan that runs from 2020 to 2030 and is part of Agenda 21 which is a broader plan that runs throughout the 21st century )
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