Hydropower investments conventionally look only at
covering the costs of building and operating the physical
infrastructure that is required to store water and generate
electricity. They tend to overlook the importance of also
investing in the upstream catchments that ensure clean
and regular water supplies and minimise siltation and
sedimentation, thereby prolonging the lifetime of dams,
maintaining generating capacity and avoiding additional
operating costs. Factoring these considerations into
hydropower investments is often a far cheaper and more
cost-effective option than bearing the losses that occur
when catchment ecosystem services are degraded and lost.
We have been working with the Millennium Challenge
Corporation and LTS International on economic aspects of
the preparation of a catchment environmental management
plan for the Upper Shire Basin, Malawi, which aims both to
enhance the rural livelihoods of the upper catchment
population, as well as to safeguard the water supplies that
are so important for downstream hydropower generation.
covering the costs of building and operating the physical
infrastructure that is required to store water and generate
electricity. They tend to overlook the importance of also
investing in the upstream catchments that ensure clean
and regular water supplies and minimise siltation and
sedimentation, thereby prolonging the lifetime of dams,
maintaining generating capacity and avoiding additional
operating costs. Factoring these considerations into
hydropower investments is often a far cheaper and more
cost-effective option than bearing the losses that occur
when catchment ecosystem services are degraded and lost.
We have been working with the Millennium Challenge
Corporation and LTS International on economic aspects of
the preparation of a catchment environmental management
plan for the Upper Shire Basin, Malawi, which aims both to
enhance the rural livelihoods of the upper catchment
population, as well as to safeguard the water supplies that
are so important for downstream hydropower generation.
| catchment economic planning in Malawi |
 |  |
© Environment Management Group 2012
