Nei til utbygging av Nedre Otta! - No to damming the Otta river!

We can help save rivers around the world. I signed up, what are you waiting?

In Österreich gibt es auch viele Pläne für Staudämme und Kraftwerke. Besucht die facebook Seite "Flüsse voller Leben"!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/200483932821/

In Austria there are also many plans for damms and powerplants in environmentally-sensitive areas. Visit the german language facebook site "Rivers full of life"!

Leave the upper Gudbrandsdal alone

700+ søknader om konsesjon i NVEs søknadsdatabase
300+ konsesjoner som skal revurderes innen 2020
Her må det tas en overordnet samla vurdering!

#4: -

Ja, det holder vi på med i TKE - Norges Padleforbund. Like TKE på Facebook så får du info om prosessen! Vi kartlegger pr. i dag alle elver som er utbyggingstruet, og vil i første omgang sørge for å få inn en høringsuttalelse fra NPF for de som er mest prekære.

Hidro power is good, but price for this is too high. Does you pay for your light bulb with ruined nature?

One of the most beutiful countries in the world with one of the most beutiful rivers. It must be a big NO!

No damming of otta

*Hytte med neven!*

I <3 RIVERS

We can have both alternative energy and free flowing rivers. We need to look at all of our possibilities before destroying or last precious eco-systems. Think before you dam.

This goes out to everyone.
Pls help us saving our rivers, they re so important for all of us.

If norway needs more electricity they should stop selling it to other countrys. If Norway needs more money because being the 4th wealthist nation in the world is not enough, by all means ruin somthing that no amount money can buy. You can put a price on building a dam, but ask yourselfs how much does a new river cost?

Such a waste, the politicians talk about income for the local community, marginal income that would first be materialized in 20 something years, when these politicians need elderly care, what a ironic coincidence. Who even know what kind of technology we have for powerproduction in 20 years, how would the world look like? We destroy the river only once, this case is just sad, the lack of vision and common sense with the local politicians is just breathtakingly short-minded. Thanks for cocking up my future.

These are the points for why I do not agree with the damming of the LOWER OTTA River:

1. The local youth that feel they were never heard.
2. WE do not need the electicity, since we have had a surplus of power in Norway for more than a decade.
3. SEL Township does NOT need it, as they had millions of kroners in plus for 2011.
4. The township will start to make money from this in 25 years.
5. One ruins a cultural heritage, along with an outstanding arena for sports and outdoor recreation.

The impact of damming a river only becomes apparent when it is too late... Conserve your wildlife rather.

#17: -

I really hope that the local people who will be affected can spread this far and wide so that more people become aware and stand together against it.  You have such valid points, please carry on with this petition... every river has it's own life, and should never be dammed!!

Stop destroying our natural rivers!

Don't dam this river!! Damming is not a way to go, we built a lot of dams in Quebec in the past decades and it was a huge mistake! It's not green at all and it changes a river into a polluted lake!

Dams have significantly impacted traditional agricultural development, ecological success of plants and animals, and most importantly, they interrupt the natural flow of nature. This dam directly effects not only the plants and animals, it effects the people who thrive because of the river. People who use the river to sustain their livelihood. We need to protect these natural beauties and not destroy them. Also, people enjoy recreational Whitewater Kayaking, Whitewater Rafting, Paddle Boarding, Canoeing, and Rafting and a Dam would destroy the ability for people to have that experience and be impacted by their surroundings. The river and the Whitewater rapids bring a lot of tourism to the area and enables excitement to people who come from all over the world. Thank you for not continuing to DESTROY NATURE....There is 9.25 Million Trillion gallons of water on this earth. It covers 70% of the earths actual surface. Less than 1% of this water is freshwater. At the rate that more than 7 Billion people are consuming water daily, we will run out of freshwater in the next 20 years. We don't want another river to end up like the Colorado River. The Colorado river has been dammed and diverted through out various parts of the river. In turn, this has caused the river to drop 130 feet since 2000. Geoscientists believe that with the way that the US is using "their" water, the Colorado will dry up in the next 40 years. Dear governments, consider the price you pay for a bit more electricity. Consider the way the demand is going to increase in the next 50 years (or however long you predict it will take until that dam is paid off). If the demand increases like currently expected, this dam is going to make no deciding difference to the power shortage problem. If you carry on like this you make the same mistakes european countries have made 30-60 years ago. They too were blinded by one-sided arguments to the eventual uselesness of these projects. Destroying this place would be a travesty to the entire world. The only thing dams are good at doing is making money for the foreign megacorporation that wins the bid for the contract. They are like giant hideous sculptures with reservoirs that fill with silt, inner workings that quickly deteriorate, costs that invariably prove higher than projected and benefits that invariably prove lower than projected, quickly erasing the thin margin of perceived benefit from the sales pitch. Better to put out a call for contractors to build an actual sculpture at an outrageously exorbitant price putting the host country in debt for generations. Then the contractors could at least have the creative freedom to make a giant concrete work of art instead of a giant concrete monolith that simply states: We heard lies and we believed them. We thought a wad of money would be better than a wonder of the world. We got ripped off and we welcomed it. Please do not do this. The effects of big dams on climate change are measured and big (methane from organic matter decomposition behind the dam). They have limited life spans. They ruin ecosystems. AND this one will ruin a tourism industry that is a strong economic force in the region. I for one am working HARD to save money to travel there and soak in the wonders. Please don't take this away from me, my children, and my grandchldren!

The social and environmental effects caused by damming are immeasurable. The displacement and changes faced by the effected communities that inhabit areas affected by damming is traumatic, impacting whole social organisations, health and economic patterns along with the loss of traditional ways of life and therefore marginalising whole cultural existence. It describes eight sub-processes that create the impoverishment caused by developments such as damming:

1-Landlessness, this is the main foundation of which people have built their productive systems commercial activities and livelihoods, the loss of both physical and man made capital occurs through this loss and change of land.

2-Joblessness, the loss of employment, that occurs through loss of land and change in the environment, unemployment and underemployment echo long after the physical change to the land and the relocation.

3- Homelessness, the loss of one’s home is temporary but the broader culture of placelessness results in the loss of a community’s space and identity.

4- Marginalization happens when groups loose their economic power, sliding further down the economic ladder and ending up living below the poverty line due to devaluation of the land and a change in the resources.

5- The decrease in health levels, which are a direct result of the relocation and change to the environment are huge - from disease, the change in lifestyle and diet, to the psychological trauma created by change and the devastating uncertainty of the future and one’s own identity.

6- Food insecurity and forced displacement will increase the risk of people falling into chronic food insecurity. A decline in crop availability and land to hunt are definite during displacement and change to the land. Hunger and undernourishment will therefore become long termed effects.

7- The loss of access to common property and assets belonging to the communities such as forests, water bodies, and grazing lands, represents a cause of income and livelihood that is undercompensated for.

8- Social disarticulation, the dismantling of community’s’ social structure, is an unquantified loss of social capital.

Please stop the greed and dont destroy another beautiful place

Save the Otta river! Please sign!

We want more water than just an environmental release for fish, the Otta is an important river for white water kayaking and rafting, both for locals to learn on and tourist to enjoy.