A large section of India’s population suffers

from water crisis or mismanagement of water

resources. To begin with, there is not enough
clean water for drinking or irrigation
purposes in many parts of the country. Flash
floods are also frequent in many regions.
Besides storing an adequate amount of water
for irrigation and electricity generation, dams
are useful in many other ways. They store
excess water from many Indian rivers which
fill up during the monsoon season, and hence
help to control floods. Dams are also often
used for breeding fishes.
Since hydropower is a renewable energy
source, we would not have to worry about
hydro-electricity sources getting used up the
way fossil fuels would get finished one day.
Canal systems leading from these dams can
transfer large amounts of water great
distances. For example, the Indira Gandhi
Canal has brought greenery to considerable
areas of Rajasthan.
However, the construction of large dams is
associated with many problems.
It displaces a large number of poor peasants
and tribals, who don’t get any benefits from
these projects and are alienated from their
lands without adequate compensation or
rehabilitation. The oustees of the Tawa Dam
(built in the 1970s) are still fighting for the
benefits they were promised.
Dam construction also swallows up huge
amounts of public money without generating
proportionate benefits. There is no equitable
distribution of water, thus people close to the
source grow water-intensive crops while
people farther downstream do not get any
water.
The dams can be constructed only in a
limited number of places, preferably in hilly
terrains. Large eco-systems are destroyed
when submerged under the water in dams,
thus dam construction contributes heavily to
deforestation and the loss of biodiversity. The
submerged vegetation rots under anaerobic
conditions and gives rise to large amounts of
methane, which is a green-house gas.
Thus, dams are renowned both for the
positive changes they bring about and for
their negative impacts. People in charge of
dam construction should look for solutions to
their problems while simultaneously work on
improving their benefits.