Impacts of hydropower development on locals’ livelihoods in the Global South

The construction of hydroelectric dams in the Global South and emerging economies is controversial; on one hand, advocates highlight the positive impacts at national and global scales, such as national development and independence from fossil fuels. On the other hand, opponents of dams stress the negative social-ecological impacts on the livelihoods of communities near construction sites, and the lack of local communities participation in the decision making processes. Scholars have published a range of case studies exploring the impacts of dams. However, there is no comprehensive understanding of how hydroelectric dams impact people’s livelihoods and capital globally. In this study, we present a comparative medium-N survey exploring the impacts of 33 large-scale dams on people’s natural, social, human, financial, and physical capital and the pathways of conditions that explain the changes in these capital in the Global South. To do so, we used the information from a qualitative meta-analysis of the social impacts of dams and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our results show that the types of people’s capital are impacted differently by the construction: natural, social, human, and financial capital are negatively impacted, whereas physical capital is often positively impacted. The fsQCA showed three main groups of pathways that explain the changes in capital. First, the study indicates that lack of local communities participation in decision-making processes negatively impacts all capital but physical. Second, regardless of the nation’s energy security, megadams generate primarily negative impacts on natural, social, and human capital and positive impacts on physical capital. Third, our results indicate the importance of the World Commission on Dams in raising international awareness about the social-ecological impacts of dams despite a country’s energy-security status.