15. Environmental and Social Concerns of Larg e Dams and Hydropower Development – An Overview

Even a layman can appreciate that in the situation of monsoonic weather in our country, storage of river flows during floods is unavoidable not only to meet the basic needs of bulging population for diverse uses but also to moderate the floods, droughts and poverty. It is to be stressed that non-development of water storage projects is not a viable or available option; due to the large temporal variations in river flows in Indian monsoonic climate. The water is becoming scarcer in India due to bulging population; but the environmental activism and biased media reporting are creating large scale obstructions in the execution of hydro projects. We must realize the basic fact that the medium and small water projects as well as water harvesting schemes cannot substitute the need of large water storages but can at best complement the larger projects. This, too, depends upon the hydrological, geological, topographical and regional limitations. The controversy of the large versus small dams is irrelevant. This article presents an overview of the environmental and social concerns of large dams and hydropower development; while scientifically analyzing the frequently raised issues by activists citing real Indian examples.