ABSTRACT
In recent years, a number of large hydropower projects, especially those that are reservoir-based, have been mired in controversy. The issues have included social ones around displacement of populations, including indigenous people, by dams and reservoirs; negative impacts on livelihoods of downstream populations; environmental problems resulting from destruction of riparian habitat and breeding grounds of fish and dolphins and inundation of forests and loss of biodiversity; considerations relating to lost revenue from alternative economic activities, such as fisheries and whitewater rafting and canoeing; and lack of accountability and transparency, corruption, and poor governance in general. Controversies that became well known internationally toward the end of the 20th century include the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada River in India, Pak Mun in Thailand, Arun III in Nepal, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, and the Three Gorges in China. Estimates put at between 40 and 80 million the numbers of people worldwide displaced by dams and around 60% of the world’s rivers as having been affected by dams and diversions.
