By Environmental News Network staff Iceland's national power company wants to dam 11 rivers and tributaries to create a 57-kilometer reservoir that portends disaster for wildlife and habitat. The controversial project has become the focus for a burgeoning new movement of non-governmental organizations in Iceland. And these NGOs already have made an impression. The government for the first time published a proposal for a national park, an idea WWF has been promoting for several years. It is home to the whooper swan, golden plover and ptarmigan, to rare flowers, herbs and moss, and to an abundant hot springs.
Few tourists visit the area.
There are no houses and barely a farm. Huts in the camp set up by the Icelandic national power company are the only sign of human habitation. The reservoir would serve a giant hydroelectric power station. With turbines producing 700 megawatts of electricity, the facility would be the biggest hydro plant in Iceland and one of the largest in Europe. None of the electricity would go to homes, however.