Economy
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the indigenous people of Ecuador used the rivers for fishing and transportation, although frequent waterfalls limited canoe travel in the Andes. The rivers long continued to be an important means of transportation, especially as the mountains made road and railroad building difficult.
Since the 20th century, rivers have become an important source of electric power in Ecuador. As of 2006, hydroelectric dams have a capacity 1,750 megawatts. Some critics have noted that these projects have tended to be "substantially oversized" without "delivering the promised energy benefits." In 2008, President Rafael Correa announced that the government planned to build eleven new hydroelectric power plants. Almost all of the dam projects face opposition from local communities that fear negative environmental impacts on the land and a lack of transparency in decision-making.
Recreational rafting on the rivers has become an important part of Ecuador's tourism-based economy.
Read more about this topic: List Of Rivers Of Ecuador
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant’s economy is a coarse symbol of the soul’s economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)