Pham 1
Albert Pham
Social Studies Gifted 7
November 13, 2013
1st Period
To Build or Not to Build
A dam is an interfering wall that stops a rivers flow and creates a reservoir of still water.
This could cause many inefficiencies through animal, plant, human life alike. City officials of
Whaleyville should not construct the newly proposed dam.
To begin with, even though my position is to not build the dam, Albert is required to
display both positive and negatives of building a dam. Now, the beginning question comes to
mind: “Why would a country build a dam?” To answer this question with respect for the
opposing side building a dam can contribute to three main things. A dam has a massive ability to
produce enough hydroelectricity to pay itself off within a year. Hydroelectricity has been a huge
argument made by anyone who favors in building a dam because current environmental
situations have caused the race to find alternative, clean energy and hydroelectricity seems to fit
all those categories. Also, having a dam is wonderful for flood control. Floods have destroyed
crops and current farming every year and seem to come whenever it decides to flood. The result
after the flood however is beautiful, luscious grass. A major reason for a drought area that has a
river is that as said earlier, a dam creates a reservoir, and that reservoir can be used as a lake so it
supports many things: farming, fishing, drinking, and trade. Basically, building a dam can help a
country’s economy.
Pham 2
Continuing on, there are several reasons for the opposition of building a dam. People say
building a dam improves the environment, but how does it help improve the environment when it
causes water pollution. The dam causes a backup of the pollution because naturally, the water
brings the pollution downstream and causes the water to have equal amounts of pollution;
however, when the pollution backs it causes it to concentrate into one area. Another reason and
effect of pollution is that fish life is harmed because the diminish of the ordinary flow of water
that is required by certain fish (i.e. Salmon). A more lenient reason is that the people of an area
where a dam is to be built would have to move out and restart their lives again. Students recently
saw this commercial where it talks about shopping in at your local small businesses would affect
the local economy; many of those small business owners would have to find something else to
specialize in because maybe they need the dam as a source of income. It doesn’t seem fair to
make someone have to restart what they worked so hard on building.
Without building the dams, the city could benefit our citizens in many ways. For
example, farmers would continue to be able to produce their crops which in turn would
continuously supply us with an abundance in food; it would not cause the disrupt of the food web
with an endangerment of a species that would be caused by the dam; and it would allow the
people to continue how they bring in income without causing them to move out.
Honestly, the negatives of the dam do outweigh the positives. The city simply don’t need
a higher income so why waste precious man power for a dam. Even if the building of the dam
were to commence, countless species would be affected negatively. Is this all worth the erection
of a dam?
Pham 3
Works Cited Page
"Dam." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam>.
"Fish." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish>.