Are Big Dams Necessary?
India holds a strong position in the list of large dam building countries after US and China. According to the World Commission on dams: Over the last 50 years, India has built more than 1500 BIG DAMS. In a survey it was found that in 1947, there were around 300 Big dams in India, And Today, there are almost 4,300 Big dams in our country.
Throughout the history of the world, Big dams have been used successfully in collecting, storing and managing water needed to sustain civilization. It have been playing an important role of harnessing the river waters for accelerating socio-economic growth and mitigating occurrence of floods and droughts. Water is essential for the development of the industries and agriculture. The primary benefit of Big dams is the water supply for domestic and industrial use. Other key benefits are:
- Meeting the agricultural demand
- Irrigation
- Hyrdo power Generation
- Inland Navigation
- Recreation
Now question arises Are Big Dams Necessary?
Are Big Dams Necessary?
With rain being sporadic because of rainy seasons and variations between different parts of the country, the idea of storing river water in reservoirs behind BIG dams seemed to be a great solution but the question is whether it is ethical to generate Hydro power from big dams and high economic growth on the sacrifice of the underprivileged? The resurgent hydropower sector promises to generate electricity but at the same time threatens to uproot communities, destroy their livelihoods and river ecosystems on which millions depend. Lets take an Example of Sardar Sarovar dam which is the Largest dam and a Large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectricity but at the same time it is one of India’s most Controversial dam projects because of its environmental ,safety impacts and socio-economic issues.
Points to be known:-
- In the year 1947, there were around 300 large dams in India. And now, there are almost 4,300 large dams.
- India holds a strong position in the list of dam building countries after US and China.