With energy demands soaring worldwide, more and more hydropower dams are being constructed since these present a viable ‘green’ option for countries with hydro potential. Under ideal circumstances, dams can secure a steady supply of energy as well as create jobs and improve living conditions for nearby communities.
Of course such construction has also raised serious concerns about the impacts on survival and human rights of people in affected areas, and on the surrounding natural ecosystems.
Dams certainly do not come without costs; deterioration of water quality and soil degradation, physical changes to the landscape, and negative consequences due to the disrupted natural flow of rivers have been discussed by activists, scientists and policymakers alike.
However, despite the strong link between dams and a lack of food for downstream and upstream communities, very few academic studies touch upon the broader relationship between hydropower and food security, the latter being defined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life”.
This link is even more pertinent in the current context of global food price rises, climate change and large expected increases in energy demand across the developing world.
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