I indeed have heard of the Hoover Dam even tho I am not a Yank.

Have you heard of the problems with the Colorado River? Have you heard of any problems associated with building dams anywhere? One cannot just go do anything at all without thinking things thru. If it's a good idea, great, but ya gotta look at the ins and outs.

If building a dam employs people for less than ten years and then makes a shitload of money for the people that own the dam but also screws the farms and fishing and whatever the people who earned a paycheck over the construction and commissioning period used to be able to do then the dam is just a temporary lift and then it's a detrement to them.

A good plan for hydro developement is welcome but it isn't so easy or advisable. Type in "dam protests" on You Tube and see how many people are getting literally fucked all over the world over improperly handled dam building. BTW, I am a Canuck (soils engineer, BTW) and we Canucks are one of the best in the world at dam building which is why the Chinese hire Canucks to build many of their dams. And some Chinese are more than pissed about it.

Good dam building is GOOD. Bad dam building is damning. That ain't rocket science... it's common science.