In the Midst of the Large Dam Controversy: Objectives, Criteria for Assessing Large Water Storages in the Developing World

By some estimates, there are 47,000 large dams in the world. India had 4,635 ‘large dams’. Large dam projects increasingly face opposition from the environmental lobby from around the world for their negative social and environmental impacts, while their role in development was largely ignored. There are three issues being investigated in this paper. First: the role of water in human development and economic growth, and the role of large storages. Second: what should be the best criterion for classifying dams in a way that they truly reflect the engineering, social and environmental challenges posed by dams? Three: what new objectives and criteria, and variables need to be incorporated in the cost–benefit analysis of dams so as to make it comprehensive? The authors have derived a new index called sustainable water use index (SWUI) from the composite water poverty index (WPI) developed by Sullivan (2002), to assess the water situation of a country.