Water Wheel March 2022: Freshwater Biodiversity

Abstract

High mountain minnow lives on, 20 years after dam rescue mission Much like tossing a pebble into a pond, the ripple effects of building massive dams and water engineering projects can spread out far and wide. The power of those ripples can be devastating to certain life forms, especially when the project involves storage dams that are big enough to supply the vast Gauteng industrial area, and an artificial channel to link two separate river systems. That was the situation several decades ago when group of fish scientists saw trouble on the horizon for a very small and rare species of freshwater fish due to the imminent construction of the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme. The original scheme involved building five large dams and several tunnel systems to provide electricity for Lesotho and to transfer billions of cubic metres of water to South Africa. Good news for people and industry . . .

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