3A-Dam+Construction

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect water or for storage of water which can be evenly distributed between locations.



Malaysian Soil Investigation (MSI) firm and Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation (SESCO) are responsible for the next 10 years, Sarawak may have three huge hydroelectric dams - but not without displacing 20,000 people and destroying tens of thousands of hectares of tropical rain forest. Already, more than 3,000 Iban, the longhouse dwellers of Sarawak's vast, trackless jungles, have been forced to move from their homes to make way for the recently opened $526 million Batang Ai Dam on the Batang Ai River at Wong Irup.



__One "Save the Rainforest" Organization:__

Cultural Survival is an organization that is against ruining the lives of cultures that live in rainforests all across the world. Their slogan reads, "Partnering with Indigenous Peoples to Defend their Lands, Languages and Cultures" which says it all. Their website asks for donations and provides information to people about how to prevent deforestation, and in this specific case, prevent dam construction. WEBSITE: []

__Two ways WE can help:__ 1.Insist that a reasonable assessment of demand for water is made available 2. Supply water tools that will help hold back water, as it is much less expenive then building a dam

__Proof__ Daming is detrimental to rainforests. The organic matter in the dam reservoir causes the problem. In the warm water of the dam, the water decays into methane and carbon dioxide. Methane is the main concern due to it having 20 times the warming impact then carbon dioxide has, in a 100 year time period. Philip Fearnside, a conservation biologist at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon in Manaus, proved that during the first ten years of its existence, four time the amount of carbon will be emitted from the dam, compared to if we had a fossil fuel station.