Damming The Flood

Long before a devastating earthquake hit in January 2010, Haiti was one of the most impoverished and oppressed countries in the world. However, in the late 1980s a remarkable popular mobilization known as Lavalas ("the flood") sought to liberate the island from decades of US-backed dictatorial rule. Damming the Flood analyzes how and why the Lavalas governments led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were overthrown, in 1991 and again in 2004, by the enemies of democracy in Haiti and abroad. The elaborate campaign to suppress Lavalas was perhaps the most successful act of imperial sabotage since the end of the Cold War. It has left the people of Haiti at the mercy of some of the most rapacious political and economic forces on the planet. Updated with a substantial new afterword that addresses the international response to the earthquake, Damming the Flood is both an invaluable account of recent Haitian history and an illuminating analysis of twenty-first-century imperialism.

From the Yangtze to the Yellow River, China is traversed by great waterways, which have defined its politics and ways of life for centuries. Water has been so integral to China’s culture, economy, and growth and development that it provides a window on the whole sweep of Chinese history. In The Water Kingdom, renowned writer Philip Ball opens that window to offer an epic and powerful new way of thinking about Chinese civilization. Water, Ball shows, is a key that unlocks much of Chinese culture. In The Water Kingdom, he takes us on a grand journey through China’s past and present, showing how the complexity and energy of the country and its history repeatedly come back to the challenges, opportunities, and inspiration provided by the waterways. Drawing on stories from travelers and explorers, poets and painters, bureaucrats and activists, all of whom have been influenced by an environment shaped and permeated by water, Ball explores how the ubiquitous relationship of the Chinese people to water has made it an enduring metaphor for philosophical thought and artistic expression. From the Han emperors to Mao, the ability to manage the waters ? to provide irrigation and defend against floods ? was a barometer of political legitimacy, often resulting in engineering works on a gigantic scale. It is a struggle that continues today, as the strain of economic growth on water resources may be the greatest threat to China’s future. The Water Kingdom offers an unusual and fascinating history, uncovering just how much of China’s art, politics, and outlook have been defined by the links between humanity and nature.

This book explores the idea and practice of flood control and argues that this is a part of a political agenda, deeply implicated in the social, economic, and political calculations of capitalism in general and colonialism in particular. It argues for a comprehensive reconsideration of the debate on the colonial environmental watershed, its hydraulic legacy, and questions contemporary enthusiasm for flood control in post-independent India. The author argues that the British assembled and deployed the idea and practice of flood control in order to secure their presence in the Orissa Delta. It was principally a political project deeply implicated in the social, economic, and political calculations of capitalism in general and colonialism in particular. Through the function of flood control, colonial rule sought to organize systems of land revenue, institute capitalist private property, and shape the region's hydrology with physical infrastructure such as embankments, canal networks, and inevitably the Hirakud Dam. In seeking to dominate the delta's many rivers, colonial capitalism brought about an unprecedented ecological rupture by transforming the Orissa Delta from a flood-dependent agrarian regime to a flood-vulnerable landscape. This ecological rupture revealed the particularities of colonial capitalism in its relationships with the natural world.

In 1804 Haiti became the world's first independent black Republic following a slave revolution. 200 years later, ravaged by colonialism and violence, it was placed under UN military occupation.Haiti's New Dictatorship charts the country's recent history, from the 2004 coup against President Aristide to the devastating 2010 earthquake, revealing a shocking story of abuse and indifference by international forces. Justin Podur unmasks the grim reality of a supposedly benign international occupation, arguing that the denial of sovereignty is the fundamental cause of Haiti's problems. A powerful challenge and wake-up call to the international NGO and development community, Haiti's New Dictatorship is essential reading for anyone concerned with justice in the global south and progressive development policies.

Floods in the Murray-Darling Basin are crucial sources of water for people, animals and plants in this often dry region of inland eastern Australia. Even so, floods have often been experienced as natural disasters, which have led to major engineering schemes. Flood Country explores the contested and complex history of this region, examining the different ways in which floods have been understood and managed and some of the long-term consequences for people, rivers and ecologies. The book examines many tensions, ranging from early exchanges between Aboriginal people and settlers about the dangers of floods, through to long running disputes between graziers and irrigators over damming floodwater, and conflicts between residents and colonial governments over whose responsibility it was to protect townships from floods. Flood Country brings the Murray-Darling Basin's flood history into conversation with contemporary national debates about climate change and competing access to water for livelihoods, industries and ecosystems. It provides an important new historical perspective on this significant region of Australia, exploring how people, rivers and floods have re-made each other.

If changed by development, the authors found the present Osage valley landscape expressive. Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs, period maps, and vintage images, this book tells the dramatic saga of human ambition pitted against natural limitations and forces beyond man's control.

Outlines the role of science in restoring or otherwise altering unwanted downstream effects of dams, including eroding river banks, changes in waterfowl habitat, threats to safe recreational use, and the loss of river sand bars, examining seven selected areas of the country -- the upper Salt River in central Arizona; the Snake River in Idaho, Oregon and Washington; the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Texas; the Chattahoochee River in Georgia; the Platte River in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska; the Green River in Utah; and the Colorado River in Arizona -- to focus on specific downstream effects of dams and the management issues related to their operation.