Impacts of Water Resources Development Project with Special Reference to Dams and Reservoirs

The demand of water and its related services increased with growing population and rising economic status. Dams have been seen as an effective way of meeting water and energy needs. The reason behind construction of these large dams is to produce hydropower besides providing continuous flow of water for irrigation and domestic purposes. In recent years, many questions are raised about existing dams. It is therefore become difficult to plan new dams. The second half of century has been proliferation of large scale river valley projects (nearly 65%) in developing countries. These projects are often multipurpose so as to meet various needs such as flood control, irrigation and production of hydropower. There are about 37,500 dams over the world of over 15m height. The increasing population and improved living standards creates extra pressure for food production, industrialization and economic growth. People opposed to dams have commonly argued that dams cause severe damage to our environment. To maximize the positive impacts and mitigate the negative environmental, social and economic impacts sustainability of water resources projects is required. In this research paper, an overview of positive and negative impacts associated with development, exploitation and management of water resources projects such as hydropower is discussed