Environmental aspects of multi-purpose reservoir projects in developing countries

Planning and implementation of dam/reservoir projects has traditionally been prompted by the need for furnishing sufficient quantities of water to meet specific needs such as hydropower generation, irrigation, and flood control, and has generally involved little attention to associated environmental aspects such as effects on water quality and regional ecology. Experience in the developing countries over the past two decades points out the need for marked reorientation in thinking on the appropriate role of such projects and hence in their planning and implementation, to make them truly multipurpose. Because of accelerating population growth, food and energy are emerging as critical parameters in many developing countries. Together with shortage of water in the dry season periods of monsoon climate regions, this makes it mandatory to plan such projects to accommodate all water-oriented needs, including promotion of a gamut of human development values as well as protection of natural resources for sustaining continuing development. By such “total multipurpose” planning, as contrasted to the limited multipurpose planning accomplished to date, the major investments in projects for utilizing scarce water resources can be far more useful in helping solve the critical problems ahead. This will require strict coordination of the existing agencies of most government agencies concerned with water resource development, most of which still function with limited purpose objectives and capabilities.