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WHY SHOULD WE KEEP THE RIVER FREE-FLOWING?
The Raundalselva is spectacular. It is one of the few virtually unaltered rivers in Western Norway. The water is clean, so clean you can drink it straight from the river, and the freshwater source in Prestegardsmoen was voted Norway’s best drinking water in 2023. Raundalen has rich birdlife, large areas of wild forest home to arctic foxes and wild reindeer and the river has thriving fish populations. It is a place of rich biodiversity and home to many red listed species.
Raundalen is popular with tourists, who come to experience one of the last areas of untouched wilderness in Europe. Others come to enjoy the pristine river.
Although there are some farms in the valley, the majority of the space in Raundalen is occupied by vast areas of untouched nature and forest. It has been a protected river since 1986 as part of the Varneplan, the national protection plan for a select number of rivers in Norway.
THE THREAT OF HYDRO
The fight to keep Raundalselva free flowing began in the 1960s. Back then, hydropower companies lobbied to develop the river on the pretext of green energy. This was stalled in 1986 when the river was finally protected.
In 2014 the river flooded, along with a new wave of arguments. Unfortunately, some of the houses in Voss and Evangar were built very close to the river banks, and in 2014, some houses and businesses were damaged by flood waters. This was when the conversation from hydropower shifted to flood prevention.
Between 2014 and 2022 the talk of dam building in Raundalsevla simmered down, and many landlords, businesses and locals took measures into their own hands, setting up simple flood prevention at home preparing for the next time the river flooded. Others did not.
In the autumn of 2022, the seasonal rains came.
This year they were above average. For most who had prepared and set up flood defences at home, the flood was an inconvenience. Others however, had not prepared and serious damage was done.
Now, in 2023, a small but loud group of people are calling for two 80 square metre tunnels that redirect the Raundalselva underground, through the mountains, and out into Granvinsfjord. This has been estimated to cost and eye watering 4 billion kroner (350 million euro). This huge sum of money to destroy protected nature and save a small number of houses from flooding will almost certainly be denied by Norway’s national politicians, and proponents of the tunnel have suggested building a dam on Raundalselva to pay for the flood tunnels.
THE PLOT THICKENS - LESSONS FROM TEIGDALEN
THE PLOT THICKENS - LESSONS FROM TEIGDALEN
The Teigdal River is a tributary of Vosso, famous for its gigantic double drop as seen from the road. The Teigdal is dammed near its headwaters, and the reservoir is topped up by rivers coming from different drainages via tunnels to maximise its capacity for producing energy.
What this meant in 2022 was that when the heavy rains came, the reservoir was filled, because stored water in the reservoir means hydropower stored for later. However, the rains persisted, the reservoir dramatically filled, and what resulted was the volume of a flooding Teigdal AND discharge from the badly managed reservoir, causing an unnatural amount of water to torrent downstream. Let that sit for a minute. Evanger was hit so hard in the 2022 floods because of a dam and rivers diverted by tunnels. And the solution some are calling for? A dam and tunnels. Irony in its purest form right?
Teigdalselva "summer-levels" (downstream Voladam)
Teigdalselva in flood, 2022 (Kråkefossen / "Double drop")
RIVER FIGHTERS
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