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This article provides information about the contemporary development in dam projects particularly in the 19th and the 20th century in modern world:
Dams and in particular large dams gained in popularity in the 19th and the 20thcentury. Dams perform two important functions that make them supposedly ‘indispensable’ in the modern world. One, they store river or surface water to overcome the inconsistencies in the demand for water and its availability. Two, the differential height between the water collected in the dam in the upstream and the river downstream create hydropower and generate electricity.
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The dam thus not only provides electricity to industrial units and households but also supplies water for agriculture, industries and mass consumption. Rivers were the untapped resource for harnessing energy. Around 200 dams were built in Britain in the 19th century to provide water to its expanding cities.
The dams built around the 1900s were earthen embankments and were built on a trial and error basis. Many of the dams built during this time in the world collapsed. The collapse of Johnstown Pennsylvania dam in 1889, St. Francis Dam of Los Angeles in the 1900s, and the water supply dam of Yorkshire in 1864 killed thousands of people and destroyed entire townships.
Large dams unlike local irrigation systems are huge structures, and are an outcome of centralised planning. That is why almost all large dams are state ventures, involving large investments and resources, both human and material. They are an integral part of the larger agenda to harness water resources for economic growth and development. The fascination with dams in the United States can be traced to the quest to irrigate the semi-arid regions in the west.
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In 1902, the famous National Reclamation or ‘Newlands’ Act was passed to reclaim land in the Western United States. Irrigation projects were seen as a way to turn arid lands into fertile plains, which would attract the landless from the east to migrate and settle in the west. The west however saw the rise of large landlords who benefited from the patronage of the state subsidies. The biggest disaster known in the history of the US is the collapse of the Hoover dam in 1931, though the latter did not dissuade the faith in large dams in solving the problem of water and power.
The former United Soviet Union (USSR) was no exception in this regard. Motivated by the conviction to build a strong socialist nation, dams were viewed as important structures of centralised resource mobilisation. As in the United States, it was a grand state project staffed by numerous engineers, officials, junior staff and workers. Damming of rivers claimed vast stretches of fertile land, marine life as well as the occupation of hundreds of fishermen. Following the revolution, dam building was an integral part of Mao Zedong’s project of ‘Great Leap Forward’.
Large dams to hold floodwater put the traditional system of containing floodwater through levees and canals redundant. Hydrologists were sceptical of the enthusiasm shown by the economic planners and their cynicism was not ill judged. Thousands of dams burst and created conditions of chaos and led to one of the worst known famines in the world. China has embarked on a new venture of constructing the Three Gorges Dam in 1996. Seismologists have drawn attention to the disastrous seismic consequences of building the dam in the region.
India too has had its share of involvement with dams. Jawaharlal Nehru’s words are quoted ever too often in praise of the Bhakra Nangal Dam, claiming big dams to be ‘modern day temples’. But Nehru too overcame his fascination for big dams subsequently, as is evident in the following statement: “I have been beginning to think that we are suffering from what we call we may call disease of giganticisms”.
In newly independent India, big dams, power centres, factories and industrial units
came to symbolise the magnanimous presence of the state and its will to build a prosperous and a modern India. Dams were the official solution to generating water resources for industries, irrigation and harnessing energy.
The focus was on increasing agricultural production and generating hydropower to fuel industrial production. Interestingly, despite the crores of rupees spent on building large dams, most of India survives by exploiting ground water. Surface water or rivers cater to less than 10% of the water requirements in the country.