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What are the disadvantages of Dams?

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Question added by Mohamed Galal Hussein Ahmed Mohamed , Technical Mnager , Fast Building Contracting Co.
Date Posted: 2015/02/26
جعفر هندي زين السقاف
by جعفر هندي زين السقاف , مهندس أستشاري , مشاريع اﻻشغال العامة

Dams, especially large ones, have the potential to cause a lot of problems for the surrounding area, especially the area behind the dam where the water flows toward the blockage. There are disadvantages for both the nature and any people living in the area.

There are many negative effects on nature. Since dams block up flowing bodies of water, such as rivers, any animals that depend on the flow to reproduce or as part of their life cycle are put in danger. Migratory fish that mate in a different location than they live the rest of their lives, for example, are unable to mate and may decline in population. The buildup of water is also dangerous for plant life that grows on the natural shoreline of the water. The plant life is submerged and dies. In addition, the beneficial sediment that normally is washed down the river is blocked, which decreases the fertility of the soil downriver from the dam.

Many humans are displaced due to dams. Humans who live in an area that is to be flooded due to a new dam have to relocate and lose their homes to the rising water.

Rashid Sultan
by Rashid Sultan , HSE Engineer , zkb

1. Dams are extremely expensive to build and must be built to a very high standard. 2. The high cost of dam construction means that they must operate for many decades to become profitable. 3. The flooding of large areas of land means that the natural environment is destroyed.4. 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.5. 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 earths surface at its location.6. 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. 7. 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 neighbouring countries. 8. 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.

Alex Al Yazouri
by Alex Al Yazouri , General Manager , Al Mushref Cooperative Society

  • dams detract from natural settings, ruin nature's work
  • dams have inundated the spawning grounds of fish
  • dams have inhibited the seasonal migration of fish
  • dams have endangered some species of fish
  • dams may have inundated the potential for archaeological findings
  • reservoirs can foster diseases if not properly maintained
  • reservoir water can evaporate significantly
  • some researchers believe that reservoirs can cause earthquakes

Richard Albert Gomes
by Richard Albert Gomes , Intern , Nectar Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd.

Dams are inefficient and unsafe and unnatural.

venkateshwara  raju
by venkateshwara raju , Assistant Engineer , Tata Consulting Engineers

Dams are built with specific purposes of storing water for water supply to cities and for irrigation of an area and to generate hydropower from it. When dams are operated and maintained within the specific parameters, there must not be any disadvantages. Dams are built with specific purposes for which they will serve the population of an area based on the design period.

Vishal Gohel
by Vishal Gohel , PROJECT ASSISTANT , NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT ENGINEERING RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Dam construction on minor river can stop flowing of of river and the habitat dependent on that water can be affected it is one of disadvantage

Darren Protulipac
by Darren Protulipac , Geotechnical Engineering Coordinator/Design Engineer

Dams can be a disadvantage to own where they are not properly operated, maintained and/or monitored.

Djordje Calic
by Djordje Calic , Assistant , Faculty of Mining and Geology, University of Belgrade

Under dams there are undergrownd waterflow. That makes fundings unstable after some period of time so the main task to eliminate that danger.

Ibrahim Saleh
by Ibrahim Saleh , مساعد مدير مشروع \فني ابنيه , شركة روضة بيسان

Disadvantages blacks

Lack of attention to the implementation of spacers between the tiles

Poor implementation

Non-implementation of the final acts of properly

Weakness in the design

Elke Woofter
by Elke Woofter , Project Assistant , American Technical Associates

Dams can break ... and flood entire areas ... I know of one build close to a fault line, when this dam breaks the entire river to where it meets the ocean will flood large areas .... including a major city at the ocean 

Samuel Conteh
by Samuel Conteh , Asst. Environmentalist , TECHSULT

As dams are consider to be the barrier that stop the flow of water for different purposes, they can also be disadvantage when they break and cause flooding

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