Alleviating flood risks

Many dams built and operated under agreements have flood control as a planned component of operation, although irrigation or power may have justified the investment. Cooperative undertakings for the Zambezi Basin, Lake Titicaca Basin, Middle Paraná and Great Lakes sub-basin have alleviation of flood risk as a major objective. In other basins in Africa, the Amazon Basin, the Plata Basin and the river systems of Europe, governments continue to incorporate flood control in their cooperative efforts. Flood control is also one objective of the USA-Canada Columbia River Treaty. Considerable progress has been made in the inauguration and operation of flood warning systems – European and North American rivers are already highly organized in this respect. In many developing countries, national institutional capability is taxed to provide and process the requisite data so that timely information can be transmitted to counterpart institutions in other countries.