Major Impacts of WRD Projects

Chapter-V
MAJOR IMPACTS OF WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
PROJECTS.
5.1 Dam/ Reservoir projects:
 a sensitive issue
In the last ten years it becomes fashionable to criticize the dams’ development.
Some experts illustrative for the related topic of this work are given below:
“Protest of environmentalists against the hydroelectric power plant on the river
Danube at Czechoslovakia continues. … At the same time protest actions took
place in front of the U. Kingdom, Sweden, France, Spain, USA and other
countries’ embassies….”
… 16/17 June 1991 The International Coalition Against the Large Dams (ICALD)
organizes a global alternative congress in protest of the ICOLD World Congress
in Vienna symbolic tress planting in the Czech channel …
Environmentalists criticize the negative impacts of the dams only once they
appear and their oversimplified solution is the ban of new dam projects. But
large dams are not a problem by themselves but a means to achieve the best use
of water resources. The river development projects are based on the storage of
flood flow and its subsequent use during the dry seasons for water supply or for
energy production.
Dams are central components of the WRD projects, the most expensive and
technically most complex. A dam engineer put the best of his in his project. And
this is not all. The care for a large river dam never ends. Traditionally, the dam
engineers in general are absorbed completely by their complicated tasks. Neither
by their professional profile nor by the nature of their daily work; are they
experts in handling public relations. Most of the nearly 40,000 dams built all over
the world are success stories, allowing steady water supply, cheap clean
hydroelectric generation, irrigation and flood control. For many non-advised
persons dam projects are mixed with other frightening traits like acid rain, green
house effects, or nuclear accidents.
In general not the dam structure produces environmental impact but the
reservoir and its operation. The final taking into account the hunger of all world
for energy and water, for protection against flood and erosion is not to stop the
construction of dams but to produce environmentally compatible dam design.
The EIA and new policy must focus on how to identify, prevent, mitigate or
compensate for the environmental effects of dams and reservoirs and how to
ensure that the institutional frame work promotes the implementation of such
measures. In addition, people with a certain experience in handling
environmental impact of large dams, like consultants, designers, operators,

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Major Impacts of WRD Projects

academic people, must be more involved in demonstrating the necessity dams

and their possible environmental capabilities.
Dam and reservoir projects are among the most sensitive of all development
projects in terms of pervasiveness of their influence in altering environmental
resources. Because they usually cause a major alteration in the hydrologic regime
of the watershed involved, they often result in marked alteration of the project
and these effects may continue for downstream to the area of final discharge of
the stream and beyond. Also dam and reservoir projects usually result in
establishment of new access routes acceleration of encroachment into upstream
areas in the watershed, resulting in impacts on forests, wildlife, mineral
development, and agricultural production throughout the watershed.
The main impacts of dam/reservoir projects are In general presented below;

a. physical factors:
The main potential impacts which have to taken into consideration are:
I. surface water quantities:
I. alteration of the hydrologic regime by the project
II. a comparison should be made of the typical hydrographs
representing both ‘before’ and ‘after’ conditions,
including evaluation of adequacy of available
meteorological/ stream gauging data, for typical normal
flood and drought year conditions.
III. Analyze the over all effect in the water balance.
IV. Check the project’s expectations of future stream size into the
reservoir taking into account continuing loss of forest
cover in the watershed (the rate of which will probably
be increased by the project) and the resulting reduction
in infiltration and consequently in the base flow of the
stream, especially in the dry seasons. If this comes out
to be a serous problem, the project should include
reforestation measures.
II. Surface water quality:
May be affected by salt accumulation, eutrophication from weeds and biomass
decay, turbidity, etc. Water qualito be used.ty in the reservoir, in part, depends
on what happens upstream and the retention time with in the reservoir. Water
quality for the ‘before and ‘after’ conditions including both the reservoir and the
river downstream includes:
I. Effects of storage on physical parameters (temperature, dissolved
oxygen, suspended solids/turbidity)

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II. Effect on dissolved mineral constituents (total dissolved solids, Ca,

Mg, Na, K, HCO, CO…)
III. Effects on biological parameters (biochemical and chemical oxygen
demand…)
III. Groundwater:
The main effects of the project in the reservoir vicinity are:
I. High water levels in the reservoir and poor drainage produces
swampy ground in the neighborhood.
II. Lowering of the water level may cause wells to dry.
III. Changing groundwater conditions may affect agricultural and forest
production, particularly on permeable soils.
IV. Water logging; it has a detrimental effect on crop yields and often
leads to soil salanization.
IV. Geology/seismology
Large dams and reservoirs may cause strains in their underlying strata. These
strains may be released suddenly, inducing earthquakes or slow long term
movements. Long term movements will lead to an increase of the permeability of
the foundations.
The main problems which have to be considered are:
I. Adequacy of the foundation conditions for structural stability of
dams, dykes, and other appurtenant structures.
II. Earthquake hazard in the region.
III. Adequacy of the structural analysis to obtain a safe design
considering the foundation conditions, earthquake
hazards, and type of fill materials available and
proposed.

V. Watershed erosion and sediment:

A variety of considerations can affect the dam and its reservoir. For example:
I. Increased population movement and economic development in the
upper watershed usually increases soil movement.
II. Dam construction and reservoir filling may provide access to a
previously inaccessible area.
III. Cleared watersheds are subjected to greater and more rapid erosion
than inundated with vegetation.
IV. Change in land use; these changes may all happen without the
project, the question is the rate of change.
VI. Downstream erosion and siltation:;
Numerous impacts are felt downstream. Many are positive and are the very
reasons why dams are built; increased irrigation, improved water control,

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 Major Impacts of WRD Projects

hydropower generation, water supply benefits. There are other environmental

and resource impacts that can be both negative or positive. Among the negative
impacts to be considered downstream are erosion and siltation. The following
items have to be analyzed:
I. Estimated future extent of downstream erosion due to scour of clear
water released by the dam, including expected vertical
and horizontal erosion and new stream water levels.
II. Effects on downstream communities and other values.
Reforestation is often mentioned as a means to conserve the soil erosion. In
Brazil, experience has shown that the reforestation along the reservoir holds back
large amount of eroded soil.
VII. Climate:
Local climate may be modified by large reservoirs, especially in terms of
humidity and local fog.
b. Socio-Economic factors:
I. Human-use values:
Socio and economic impacts of large dam projects vary greatly in different
geographic, politic, economic context. It includes the impact of the construction
and presence of anew access road, as well as the impact of the associated
transmission lines. Impact both direct and indirect should be evaluated in the
context of cumulative effects.
The major impacts which need to be assessed are:
o Water supply
o Impact of the project in improving availability of water supply to
downstream community.
o Considerations of the effect of low flow augmentation
o Considerations of both water quality and quantity
o The design of project downstream facilities (such as irrigation
canals) includes provision for connections/diversion for connecting
new supply systems which are likely to be needed.
o Navigation:
o Effect of the project on navigation both above and below the dam
o Proposed navigation improvements including transshipment
facilities.
o Flood control:
o Achieved flood control
o Describe the anticipated altered hydrologic regime under flood
conditions and the anticipated benefits in reduction in flood
damage, including reclamation of land for agriculture.

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o Mineral development:
o Assessment of sediment loads to reservoirs for existing mining.
o Agro-industries
o Land use
o Resettlement:
The removal of the local inhabitants from areas to be flooded by the reservoir
has an important socio-economic impact on large dams. Main characteristic
is:
o The common approach in developing countries has been to compesate
the families living in the new reservoir area only for the property they
own, with nothing allocated to solve the major problem of
rehabilitation (cost of getting established else where including loss of
income in the interim). Thus the project, which is presumably intended
to benefit the people of the country, tends to injure the people who
contribute the most to the project success by giving up their family
land.
The EIA thus should discuss in some detail the project’s plans for managing
resettlement of the population to be inundated including;
o Provision for rehabilitation of these families in their new
living/working situations
o Alternative choices for resettlement
o Other information as needed to assure that the resettle will share in the
benefit of the project and be at least as well of as without the project.
o Public health:
o The impoundment may expand the transmission of human
diseases and also to increase the density f vectors in the vicinity.
Therefore, the project should include provision for necessary
control measures of disease outbreak.
o Recreation and aesthetics:
o The creation of reservoir may develop the tendency of recreation
and tourism attraction.

Mitigation Measures:
Mitigation measures vary widely for WRD projects depending on the types f
impacts and value of affected resources. Some fairly typical mitigation measures
applicable to WRD projects are described below:
1. if a dam/reservoir will result in loss of valuable downstream fisheries
and this loss will not be offset by the future by the future reservoir

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Major Impacts of WRD Projects

fisheries, then a downstream fisheries development scheme may be

required to mitigate the unavoidable losses.
2. if the inundation area includes valuable wild life habitat resulting in loss
of wildlife, it may be necessary to designate an area away from the
project as a wildlife sanctuary.
3. if the WRD results in degradation of water quality or reduced flows of
traditional downstream water supplies, it may be necessary to mitigate
the loss by providing groundwater development or alternative water
supplies.
The planning process for mitigation measures is not an activity independent of
the EIA processes, but rather the mitigation measures must be planned with in
the context of the overall environmental management plan. Therefore, the
mitigation measures as well as enhancement measures and monitoring are
automatically components of the planning. Once mitigation measures are
identified, the cost of implementation must be incorporated in the project
cost/benefit analysis along with the environmental benefits.

5.2 Hydropower Projects:

Additional environmental parameters to Dam/Reservoir projects:
For hydropower projects having dams/reservoir, the previous discussion of
environmental parameters will apply. From the environmental point of view,
hydropower projects represent by far the most appropriate source of power
because if properly planned, they can be relatively clean in terms of effects on
environment.
Additional parameters to be considered for dam/reservoir/hydropower projects
include the following:
Market for power: availability of an assured market for planned power
generation.
Alternative to thermal power: cost of generating and delivering power
to places of use compared with alternative power sources (thermal
plants)
Rural electrification: potentials for furnishing power to rural villages in
the vicinity of the project
A list with potential impacts off hydraulic projects and recommended mitigation
measures is given below on table:

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5.3 River Training Projects:

River training projects, may result in marked changes in the aquatic ecology:
Marked reduction of meanders, riffles, and riparian vegetation
Increased in upstream erosion and downstream flooding
Depreciation of groundwater recharging from wetlands which are
reduced in size or eliminated
Reduction of wildlife cover and soil-holding vegetation along
stream banks
Changes in basin silt deposition patterns including possible adverse
downstream effects
From an ecological point of view, one can say that the worst thing that can
happen to a stream is impoundment, and the next worst thing is canalization.
The assessment of the environmental impacts of a proposed canalization project
must include:
Changes in water quality and in ecological habitat parameters in
the canalization reach and downstream
Projected changes in beneficial stream uses (aquatic biota, water
supply, recreation) resulting from changes in water quality or
destruction of habitat in the canalized reach downstream
Projects changes in land use including effects on wetlands
(including aquatic and terrestrial habitat)
Consideration of mitigation measures including changes in the
project design or in project operation and maintenance plans.
Some feasible mitigation measures are given below:
Grade control structures (such as drop, spillway and cascade
structures)
Low level weirs
Pool-riffle sequence
One- sided channel construction
Changes in channel cross section and using deflectors.

5.4 Groundwater projects

Possible effects of the withdrawal on ground subsidence
Possible effects of groundwater pumping in inducing salinity
intrusion, either from the seacoast or near by saline strata
The mineral quality of the water produced as related to suitability for
its use for irrigation, municipal or industrial uses. For domestic uses,

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the common problems are excessive salinity, iron, which may inhibit
use unless treatment is feasible to reduce the effect.

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