A review of our current understanding and debates relating to the environmental and social impacts of dams and large-scale water engineering projects, should begin with reference to two "classic" texts. The Careless Technology, a report of 1968 conference published in 1972, reported for the first time the extensive social, economic and environmental impacts of these projects. Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard argued in their 1984 survey, The Environmental and Social Impacts of Large Dams, that these impacts were not the product of poor planning or management, but were intrinsic to the technology, and largely unavoidable wherever this technology is employed. The "benign superdam": a clean source of energy, generating benefits at reasonable cost, was, they concluded, a myth.

Environmental Impact

Social Impact

Economic Impact

 

Sources:
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Natural Resources in Developing Countries: Example of a
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environmental implications of irrigation projects.]
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