Land owned by the hydroelectric company is often open to the public for hiking, hunting, and skiing. Not to mention the economic stimulation provided by employment. Hydropower may be better on the environment than fossil-fuel sources, but its future is so uncertain that we may need to focus on other alternatives. Hydroelectric power is also very efficient and inexpensive. Efficiency could be further increased by refurbishing hydroelectric equipment.
Some regions depend on it more than others.
The advantages of hydropower are therefore convincing, but there are some serious drawbacks that are causing people to reconsider its overall benefit. Since the most feasible sites for dams are in hilly or mountainous areas, the faults that often created the topography pose a great danger to the dams and therefore the land below them for thousands of years after they have become useless for generating power. In fact, dam failures do occur regularly due to these terrain conditions, and the effects are devastating. Chile's Biob o River, whose banks are home to the Pehuenche. When a new dam's reservoir floods the countryside, people who live in the area have to move and relinquish their former lifestyles in order to make way for the project.