Public environmental organizations around the world oppose the recognition of hydropower as a renewable energy source and encouraging its further development within the framework of the Paris Climate Agreement and other UN institutions because hydrotechnical construction, carried out to meet the growing energy needs, leads not only to positive, but also to significant negative consequences. According to Olga Kazantseva, of Eco-TIRAS, Moldova, the most important negative consequences of hydro-construction on the Dniester are disruption of the continuity of the river flow and habitats, as well as changes in the hydrological regime. The self-purification mechanisms of the ecosystem can no longer cope with pollution, and the characteristics of regulated rivers are more typical for stagnant waters than for flowing ones, the expert noted in an international webinar at IPN.
According to the expert, the abundance and diversity of the ecological impacts of dams make it important to assess river and coastal ecosystems and their ecosystem services (i.e. the benefits that people receive from ecosystems) in terms of their economic value. The integration of accounting the value of ecosystem services in business planning is rapidly developing in the world. The process of realizing the importance of economic valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services is still under way in Moldova.
At the same time, the experience of assessing ecosystem services under the influence of the Dniester hydropower centre indicates its need for solving a number of environmental and economic problems of the development of hydroelectric construction, incl. such as economic justification of alternatives for the development of the territory and justification of additional costs for environmental measures. This is especially important in the face of growing demand for water, which is expected to exceed supply by 1.4 times by the end of the 2030s, and the cost of drinking water in developed countries in retail stores is already comparable to the cost of oil, noted Olga Kazantseva.
Aram Gabrielyan, of the Ecological and Cultural NGO “Khazer” from Armenia, said that as a result of the implementation of the program for the development of small hydropower industry (the number of operating small plants reached 188, and 23 more construction licenses were issued), the natural river ecosystems in the Republic of Armenia are lost.
For a pilot study of ecosystem services, the Argichi River with its drainage basin, which forms in the Lake Sevan basin, was selected. The following specially protected areas have been created in the river basin - the Lichk-Argichi Nature Reserve, designed to preserve the spawning grounds of endemic Sevan trout, and natural monuments: the gorges of the Argichi River with its tributaries, meanders of the Argichi River, a swampy valley, the remains of a natural forest.
The river bed is completely blocked by the dam of a small hydroelectric power plant, built in 2013, but the fish passage cannot ensure the migration of fish along the channel, as a result of which the Argichi SHPP had a catastrophic effect on both the quantity and species composition of the entire ichthyofauna.
Research on ecosystem services should lead to the development and implementation of payment schemes for ecosystem services. They must become economically viable mechanisms to regulate and mitigate the harmful effects of hydropower on natural ecosystems and on people, who must reap the benefits of this ecosystem.
