okavango delta
The Okavango Delta of Botswana is home to a rich ecosystem and some of the most popular animals we grow up with as children. This African marshland that zebras, lions and giraffes call home is also at risk of undergoing massive change, as a new dam development at the stem of the water system threatens to disrupt the nature of things.
In the 20th century, hydro dams were seen as a great way to generate power from rural waterways for our urban centers. More modern science has shown us that dams can have vastly negative affects on not only the land around the dam, but the watershed that follows for hundreds of miles. The terrain adjacent to the dams are disrupted by water overflow, the river banks that precede the dam widen and threaten to kill the surround fauna, and the systems that follow the dam lose the sediment and nutrients that typically flow into their waters that are caught by the dam. This is all very bad for the zebra, lion, giraffe, and thousands of other species that call these waters home.
