Few creations of big technology capturethe imaginationlike giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind’s long suffering at the mercy of flood and droughtthat makes the ideal of forcing the waters to do our biddingso fascination. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant damprojects threaten to do more harm than good.
The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn′t help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbolof achievement for nations and people striving to assertthemselves. Egypt′s leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey′s bid for First World statusincludes the giant Ataturk Dam.
But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example stopped the Nile flooding but deprivedEgypt of the fertile silt that floods left - all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of siltthat it barelygenerates electricity.
And yet, the mythof controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilizedEurope, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troopsin their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself.
Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go ahead to the even more wrong headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its advisorssay the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmentaldestruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed
Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the cost and benefits of controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectricpower and flood control and irrigationare possible without building monster dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. You don’t need a dam to be saved.
译文
在重大技术所创造的东西中，很少有能像大型水坝这样能体现人的想象力的。或许是因为人类长期遭受洪涝和干旱的袭击，使得人类制服洪水的愿望更加令人兴奋不已。但是令人着迷，有时也会使人盲目。有些巨型大坝的项目就有着弊大于利的危险。
建造大坝的教训是：大的并不一定总是美的。但是这无法阻止想要修建高大雄伟的大坝来显示那些力争得到自我肯定的国家和人民当作伟大成就的象征。埃及在阿拉伯世界的领导地位由建造阿斯旺大坝而巩固。土耳其为了力争成为世界一流的国家，也包括修建了巨大的阿塔特克大坝。
但是大坝并没有如预期的那样发挥作用。例如阿斯旺大坝，它阻止了尼罗河洪水的泛滥，但也使得埃及失去了洪水离去后所留下的肥沃土壤——换回来的是一个疾病滋生的大水库。现在整个水库填满了淤泥，几乎不能发电。
然而控制水的不切实际的想法仍在继续。本周，在文明的欧洲中心，斯洛伐克人和匈牙利人为了多瑙河上的一处水坝引发争端，几乎差点动用了军队。这个大型的工程可能会出现所有大坝上的常见问题。但斯洛伐克正在力图从捷克脱离而独立，现在它需要建一个大坝来证明自己的实力。
与此同时，在印度，世界银行已经贷款来建造问题繁多的纳尔
