Massive dams are much more than simply machines to generate electricity and store water.
Freshwaters, because of a host of human assaults, but especially because of dams, are the most degraded of major ecosystems. Dams are the main reason why fully one-fifth of the world's freshwater fish are now either endangered or extinct. Very few of these people ever recovered from the ordeal, either economically or psychologically. Dams kill people because they spread diseases such as malaria and because they break. Silenced Rivers explains the history and politics of dam building worldwide and shows why large dams have become the most controversial of technologies.