A new WWF report identifies the top 21 rivers at risk from dams being planned or under construction.

Gland, Switzerland - A new WWF report warns that indiscriminate dam-building is threatening the world's largest and most important rivers, with the Yangtze in China, the La Plata in South America, and the Tigris and Euphrates in the Middle East likely to suffer most from dams.

The WWF report, Rivers at Risk, identifies the top 21 rivers at risk from dams being planned or under construction. It shows that over 60 per cent of the world's 227 largest rivers have been fragmented by dams, which has led to the destruction of wetlands, a decline in freshwater species - including river dolphins, fish, and birds - and the forced displacement of tens of millions of people.

The report highlights the Yangtze as the river at most risk with 46 large dams planned or under construction. The Danube and Amazon rivers are also included in the list. The report concludes that governments are not applying the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) to their dam projects. As a result, the benefits that dams provide - such as hydropower, irrigation, and flood control services - are often overtaken by negative environmental and social impacts. For example, much of the water provided by dams is lost, mainly due to inefficient agriculture irrigation systems - which globally waste up to 1,500 trillion litres of water annually. This is equivalent to 10 times the annual water consumption of the entire African continent.

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