What is dam:-

The topic for project is dams. The first known dam was built in
2900 B.C. across the Nile River to protect the city of Memphis from
flooding. Dam build was continued into the time of the Roman empire,
after which dam construction was literally lost until the 1800s. Dams are a
structure also seen in nature - beavers build dams to keep the water deep
enough to cover the openings to their homes, protecting them from
predators To date, over 400,000 km of the earth have been flooded due to
damming.

In particular, I will focus on the social and environmental impacts

of large dams. Throughout the last century, many large dams were built
worldwide and only today are the implications really being understood. The
infrastructures and ecosystems of the regions in which these dams were
created were severely damaged/destroyed, reeking havoc on the people,
animals, and vegetation who called these places home. Included on the case
studies of the Aswan Dam in Egypt and the Three Gorges dam which is
currently under construction on the Yangtze River in China. As well, I have
included a brief overview of dams and a page on environmental concerns.
Dams are massive barriers built across rivers and streams to confine and
utilize the flow of water for human purposes such as irrigation and
generation of hydroelectricity. This confinement of water creates lakes or
reservoirs.

Why do countries build Dams?

It’s a means by which many of the developed countries of the world
build their economic strength

Improving the circumstances of a region - be it health, crops,

infrastructure or industries - leads to greater productivity, more markets,
sturdier populations, more investment, and so on ….

Reasons to build a dam: -

 • generation of hydroelectricity
• irrigation. These are often diversion dams, which stop a river’s natural
course so that water can be sent off to a different place.
• control flooding. These are called detention dams, which are
constructed to either stop or slow the amount of water in a river.

According to Patrick McCully, campaigns director of the

International Rivers Network, over 800,000 dams have been constructed
worldwide for drinking water, flood control, hydropower, irrigation,
navigation, and water storage. But since the 1950s, the peak of the big dam
era, perceptions of dams and dam building has changed. Once symbols of
development, dams today symbolize, as shown in this website, not progress
but environmental and social devastation.

Types of dams:-

Dams can be formed by human agency, natural causes, or even by

the intervention of wildlife such as beavers. Man-made dams are typically
classified according to their size (height), intended purpose or structure.

By size:-

International standards define large dams as higher than 15-20 meters

and major dams as over 150-250 meters in height. The tallest dam in the
world is the 300-meter-high Nurek Dam in Tajikistan.

By purpose:-

Intended purposes include providing water for irrigation to town or

city water supply, improving navigation, creating a reservoir of water to
supply industrial uses, generating hydroelectric power, creating recreation
areas or habitat for fish and wildlife, retaining wet season flow to minimise
downstream flood risk and containing effluent from industrial sites such as
mines or factories. Some dams can also serve as pedestrian or vehicular
bridges across the river as well. When used in conjunction with intermittent
power sources such as wind or solar, the reservoir can serve as pumped
water storage to facilitate base load dampening in the power grid. Few dams
serve all of these purposes but some multi-purpose dams serve more than
one.

By structure:-

Based on structure and material used, dams are classified as timber

dams, arch-gravity dams, embankment dams or masonry dams.

Advantages:-
• Once a dam is constructed, electricity can be produced at a constant
rate.
• If electricity is not needed, the sluice gates can be shut, stopping
electricity generation. The water can be saved for use another time
when electricity demand is high. The build up of water in the lake
means that energy can be stored until needed, when the water is
released to produce electricity.
• Dams are designed to last many decades and so can contribute to the
generation of electricity for many years / decades.
• The lake that forms behind the dam can be used for water sports and
leisure / pleasure activities. Often large dams become tourist
attractions in their own right.
• The lake's water can be used for irrigation purposes.
• When in use, electricity produced by dam systems do not produce
green house gases. They do not pollute the atmosphere.
• Hydropower is a fueled by water, so it's a clean fuel source.
Hydropower doesn't pollute the air like power plants that burn fossil
fuels, such as coal, oil or natural gas.
• Hydropower is a domestic source of energy, produced locally near
where it is needed.
• Hydropower relies on the water cycle, which is driven by the sun, thus
it's a renewable power source so long as the rain keeps falling on the
dam catchments area.
• Hydropower is generally available as needed; engineers can control
the flow of water through the turbines to produce electricity on
demand.
 • Hydropower is not only a cleaner source of energy than oil but is it
more cost effective as well. The most efficient coal burning plants are
only able to convert around 50 percent of their energy into electricity,
whereas modern day hydro power turbines convert up to 90 percent of
their energy into electricity.
• Hydropower can cost less than a penny per kWh (Kilowatt Hour)
compared to fossil fuel power plants at around 2 to 3 cents per kWh.
That may not seem like a big difference, but when factored out over a
year and the millions of kW hours Americans burn, it adds up to a
huge savings.
• Hydropower plants also have an added bonus as they create
recreational opportunities for people as well as electricity. Hydro
power dams provide not only water-based activities, but since much
of the surrounding land is public they also encourage numerous other
outdoor activities aside from boating, skiing, fishing, and hunting.
• Hydropower plants provide benefits in addition to clean electricity.
Impoundments hydro power creates reservoirs that offer a variety of
recreational opportunities, notably fishing, swimming, and boating.
Most hydro power installations are required to provide some public
access to the reservoir to allow the public to take advantage of these
opportunities. Other benefits may include water supply and flood
control.

Disadvantages: -
• Dams are extremely expensive to build and must be built to a very
high standard.
• The high cost of dam construction means that they must operate for
many decades to become profitable.
• The flooding of large areas of land means that the natural environment
is destroyed.
• People living in villages and towns that are in the valley to be flooded,
must move out. This means that they lose their farms and businesses.
In some countries, people are forcibly removed so that hydro-power
schemes can go ahead.
• The building of large dams can cause serious geological damage. For
example, the building of the Hoover Dam in the USA triggered a
 number of earth quakes and has depressed the earth's surface at its
location.
• Although modern planning and design of dams is good, in the past old
dams have been known to be breached (the dam gives under the
weight of water in the lake). This has led to deaths and flooding.
• Dams built blocking the progress of a river in one country usually
means that the water supply from the same river in the following
country is out of their control. This can lead to serious problems
between neighboring countries.
• Building a large dam alters the natural water table level. For example,
the building of the Aswan Dam in Egypt has altered the level of the
water table. This is slowly leading to damage of many of its ancient
monuments as salts and destructive minerals are deposited in the stone
work from 'rising damp' caused by the changing water table level.
• Hydro power dams can damage the surrounding environment and alter
the quality of the water by creating low dissolved oxygen levels,
which impacts fish and the surrounding ecosystems. They also take up
a great deal of space and can impose on animal, plant, and even
human environments.
• Fish populations can be impacted if fish cannot migrate upstream past
impoundments dams to spawning grounds or if they cannot migrate
downstream to the ocean. Upstream fish passage can be aided using
fish ladders or elevators, or by trapping and hauling the fish upstream
by truck. Downstream fish passage is aided by diverting fish from
turbine intakes using screens or racks or even underwater lights and
sounds, and by maintaining a minimum spill flow past the turbine.
• Hydro power can impact water quality and flow. Hydro power plants
can cause low dissolved oxygen levels in the water, a problem that is
harmful to riparian (riverbank) habitats and is addressed using various
aeration techniques, which oxygenate the water. Maintaining
minimum flows of water downstream of a hydro power installation is
also critical for the survival of riparian habitats.
• Hydro power plants can be impacted by drought. When water is not
available, the hydro power plants can't produce electricity.
• New hydro power facilities impact the local environment and may
compete with other uses for the land. Those alternative uses may be
more highly valued than electricity generation. Humans, flora, and
fauna may lose their natural habitat. Local cultures and historical sites
may be flooded. Some older hydro power facilities may have historic
 value, so renovations of these facilities must also be sensitive to such
preservation concerns and to impacts on plant and animal life.
• By 2020, it is projected that the percentage of power obtained from
hydro power dams will decrease to around four percent because no
new plants are in the works, and because more money is being
invested in other alternative energy sources such as solar power and
wind power.

Why the Narmada Dam?

Currently in India:

• 1/5 of population (200 million people) are without safe drinking water
• 2/3 of population (600 million people) lack basic sanitation
• 2/5 of population (350 million people) live below the poverty line
• 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 dams seemed to be a great solution

The Narmada Dam Project:-

The first of the dams to be built is the Sardar Sarovar. It is
considered to be one of the most important dams in the project and the
biggest water development project in India.

According to the government, the Sardar Sarovar Dam will do the

following:

• Provide safe drinking water to 30 million people

• Irrigate 4.8 million hectares of land
• Produce 550 megawatts of power
• Provide 1,300 cubic-meters of water per yr.for municipal and
industrial purposes
• Provide a drainage system to carry away floodwaters
• It will also take the land of 320,000 people
 The Sardar Sarovar Dam
• The cost of the project was estimated at $200 million, actual
cost is $450 million
• Investors are the World Bank until 1993 (when they withdrew),
Government of Gujarat (state where the Sardar Sarovar dam is
located) and S.Kumars (India’s leading textile companies)
• It will displace 180,000 more than projected and affect 700,000
livelihoods
• Sardar Sarovar dam and canals drinking water $225/person
• Sardar Sarovar irrigation $3,800/ha Conventionnel large-scale

Positive impacts of sardar sarovar dam

• It will irrigate approximately 1.8 million hectares of land.
• It will provide water for drought prone regions of kutchh and parts
of rajasthan.
• It will increase in agricultural activities.
• Due to the generation of electricity (1450 MW) resulting into
opening of new industries.
• It will provide jobs to local people.

Negative impact:-
• Disturbance of the ecosystem of river.
• Inundation of land including forested areas
• Loss of indigenous peoples rights no compensation for land or
livelihood.
• It will submerge 37,533 hectares of land in total, which includes forest
cover and indigenous people’s land.

Conclusion
Careful planning throughout the site selection, design, and
construction of dams is critical. Though main objectives of water
supply, electricity generation or flood control are important the
sociological impact should be considered. The economic incentive
should be weighed against sociological impact.
 INDUKAKA IPCOWALA INSTITUTE OF
MANAGEMENT,
CHARUSAT UNIVERSITY,
CHANGA

SEMINAR ON CONTEMPRORY ISSUES IN

MANAGEMENT

REPORT
ON
DAM
&
IMPACTS ON ENVIROMENT

SUBMITTED BY: GUIDED BY:-

LOKESH.BHATIYA MRS. VAISHALI. SHAH

SEMESTER-1, MBA.