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Full article: The impacts of hydropower development on rural livelihood sustenance
Source: tandfonline.com
Article summary:
1. River damming is increasing globally and has a range of impacts on riverine ecosystems, including habitat degradation, loss of biodiversity, altered water quality, and disruption of biogeochemical cycles.
2. The construction of reservoirs often leads to secondary effects on the livelihoods of people dependent on downstream natural resources, such as displacement, reduced living standards, and deprivation of lifetime benefits.
3. In Kenya, hydropower projects have been implemented without thorough environmental and social impact assessments, leading to negative socio-economic impacts that need to be addressed.
Article analysis:
The article provides an overview of the impacts of hydropower development on rural livelihood sustenance in Kenya. It is well-researched and provides a comprehensive overview of the potential impacts associated with river damming. The article is reliable in its discussion of the potential environmental and ecological impacts associated with river damming, such as ecosystem and habitat degradation, obstruction of fish breeding and migrations routes, loss of biodiversity and habitats, increased nutrients and sediment retention, disruption of biogeochemical cycles, altered water quality and natural flooding of the wetlands and flood plains, as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions.
The article also discusses the potential socio-economic impacts associated with reservoir establishments in Kenya such as displacement of families, diminished living standards, deprivation of lifetime benefits (such as flood recess agricultural land), reduced food supplies, shelter, medicines income employment opportunities etc., which are all supported by evidence from other studies cited in the article.
The article does not appear to be biased or one-sided in its reporting; it presents both sides equally by discussing both the economic benefits associated with reservoirs (such as electricity generation) as well as their potential negative impacts on downstream ecosystems and community livelihoods. It also acknowledges that some past impact assessment studies have focused primarily on areas in the vicinity of reservoirs while ignoring their potential effects further downstream.
The only potential bias present in this article is that it does not explore any counterarguments or alternative solutions for addressing the negative socio-economic impacts associated with reservoir establishments in Kenya. However this is understandable given that this was not the focus or purpose of this particular article.