55
Sibaral Project (from Siberia to Aral Sea), together with plans to nourish the Volga
River through a transfer from western Siberian rivers, started during the Soviet era,
but had been abruptly stopped in 1986 by Michael Gorbachev. More recently, it is
enjoying again favour among various actors in Central Asia and in Russia as well.
The archived construction plans for the 2,540 km long Sibaral canal are actually
unearthed from the various institutes previously involved in the planning (Micklin
1977 ; Pearce 2009 ; Singh 2012 ). Sibaral is an example where the consequences of
poor catchment management are expected to be solved through an immense engineering megaproject, which again is associated with probably very high economic,
social, and environmental risks and costs, although a calculation of the costs and
risks must remain a very rough estimate at this stage.
For North America, at least 15 separate projects have been proposed but not
(yet) realised during the past century to reshape the continental water courses
(Forest and Forest 2012 ). The most popular and ambitious proposal has been the
North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) , which would have reconfi gured the water courses through dams, canals, pipelines, etc. It is very hard to
imagine the dimensions of this project (e.g. Barr 1975 ; Micklin 1977 ). It has
been proposed to divert 20 % of the fl ow from the northern rivers, mainly from
the Peace and Yukon rivers in Alaska and British Columbia, southward to a
huge, 800 km long excavation called the Rocky Mountain Trench. From there,
water would be diverted to the Great Lakes, to SW USA and fi nally to Mexico.
The annual volume of water provided could be up to 300 × 10
9 m
3 per year, the
estimated costs are between USD 420 billion and USD 1.4 trillion, and three
million jobs are projected to be created. The concept had been called “grand and
imaginative” (Abelson 1965 ), while Luton ( 1965 ) replied: “[…] let us wait until
we know our doom is at hand, and when our last realisable ambition is to amaze
future archeologists”.
For a long time, plans have existed in Australia to move water from the waterrich northern areas to the southern parts of the continent (e.g., Kimberley to Perth
Scheme, Bradfi eld Scheme, South-East Queensland water grid). However, local
solutions such as improved use effi ciency, recycling of water, desalinisation and
reduced consumption prove to be economically, socially and environmentally
much more sustainable than the long-distance transfer of water (Australian
Government 2010 ).
Sudan and Egypt jointly began the construction of the Jonglei Canal in the 1970s
(Salman 2011 ). The canal was meant to increase the downstream fl ow of the Nile
waters by diverting water away from the vast wetlands where a high proportion of
water is lost by evapotranspiration. The project, which was funded to a large extent
by the World Bank, stopped in 1983 at about 100 km short of completion when the
civil war between North and South Sudan started.
There are several other large-scale projects in the planning and construction
phase throughout the African continent, including projects in Botswana, Namibia
Lesotho, Morocco and other areas. Similar projects exist for southern Europe,
Greece and Spain in particular, and for Turkey, but also for South America, in particular Brazil.
4 A Global View on Future Major Water Engineering Projects
Sibaral Project (from Siberia to Aral Sea), together with plans to nourish the Volga
River through a transfer from western Siberian rivers, started during the Soviet era,
but had been abruptly stopped in 1986 by Michael Gorbachev. More recently, it is
enjoying again favour among various actors in Central Asia and in Russia as well.
The archived construction plans for the 2,540 km long Sibaral canal are actually
unearthed from the various institutes previously involved in the planning (Micklin
1977 ; Pearce 2009 ; Singh 2012 ). Sibaral is an example where the consequences of
poor catchment management are expected to be solved through an immense engineering megaproject, which again is associated with probably very high economic,
social, and environmental risks and costs, although a calculation of the costs and
risks must remain a very rough estimate at this stage.
For North America, at least 15 separate projects have been proposed but not
(yet) realised during the past century to reshape the continental water courses
(Forest and Forest 2012 ). The most popular and ambitious proposal has been the
North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) , which would have reconfi gured the water courses through dams, canals, pipelines, etc. It is very hard to
imagine the dimensions of this project (e.g. Barr 1975 ; Micklin 1977 ). It has
been proposed to divert 20 % of the fl ow from the northern rivers, mainly from
the Peace and Yukon rivers in Alaska and British Columbia, southward to a
huge, 800 km long excavation called the Rocky Mountain Trench. From there,
water would be diverted to the Great Lakes, to SW USA and fi nally to Mexico.
The annual volume of water provided could be up to 300 × 10
9 m
3 per year, the
estimated costs are between USD 420 billion and USD 1.4 trillion, and three
million jobs are projected to be created. The concept had been called “grand and
imaginative” (Abelson 1965 ), while Luton ( 1965 ) replied: “[…] let us wait until
we know our doom is at hand, and when our last realisable ambition is to amaze
future archeologists”.
For a long time, plans have existed in Australia to move water from the waterrich northern areas to the southern parts of the continent (e.g., Kimberley to Perth
Scheme, Bradfi eld Scheme, South-East Queensland water grid). However, local
solutions such as improved use effi ciency, recycling of water, desalinisation and
reduced consumption prove to be economically, socially and environmentally
much more sustainable than the long-distance transfer of water (Australian
Government 2010 ).
Sudan and Egypt jointly began the construction of the Jonglei Canal in the 1970s
(Salman 2011 ). The canal was meant to increase the downstream fl ow of the Nile
waters by diverting water away from the vast wetlands where a high proportion of
water is lost by evapotranspiration. The project, which was funded to a large extent
by the World Bank, stopped in 1983 at about 100 km short of completion when the
civil war between North and South Sudan started.
There are several other large-scale projects in the planning and construction
phase throughout the African continent, including projects in Botswana, Namibia
Lesotho, Morocco and other areas. Similar projects exist for southern Europe,
Greece and Spain in particular, and for Turkey, but also for South America, in particular Brazil.
4 A Global View on Future Major Water Engineering Projects