What are the barriers in setting up a hydroelectricity power plant?

 The energy of running water has been exploited for very many years. However, traditional approaches have suffered disadvantages due to environmental factors. For example:

• ·         Building a dam across a river floods the land that would otherwise be available for use, alters the landscape, affects the local community that would have lived and worked on the flooded land, alters the character of the river, and prevents the free movement of fish;

• ·         Diverting a river affects the nature of the countryside and does not lend itself to use on a large scale.

• ·         Permanent complete or partial blockage of a river for energy conversion is adversely affected by variations in flow.

• ·         Building large-scale hydro power plants can be polluting and damaging to surrounding ecosystems. Changing the course of waterways can also have a detrimental effect on human communities, agriculture and ecosystems further downstream.

• ·         Hydro projects can also be unreliable during prolonged droughts and dry seasons when rivers dry up or reduce in volume.