ABSTRACT
Reservoirs are prevalent man-made works, since time immemorial they have been mentioned by many and various historical sources, written or not written, some older than 5000 years. In Antiquity, reservoirs for irrigation, water supply and flood protection were built in Egypt, in Mesopotamia and Persia, in China, in Sri Lanka, in India, as well as in some Asian and European provinces of the Roman Empire. In the Modern Ages, the XV-XVIII-th centuries, a sudden surge was recorded in the field of dam and reservoir construction, with their use being made extensively for many purposes: irrigation, domestic water supply and later, hydropower production. The Owen Falls Reservoir in Uganda is the largest reservoir in the world, but includes the big natural Lake Victoria. Silting or sedimentation of reservoirs is a very complex process of entrainment, transport and deposition of sediment in reservoir basins, which possibly has major impacts and several effects on the river system and its environment.
