What are the adverse effects of multi-purpose river valley projects ?
Answers
). Adverse effect on the fertility of the soil:- Due to construction of dams, there are no annual floods in the river. And because of this, the soil of the downstream region does not get nutrient rich silt. This decreases the fertility of the soil.
ii). Adverse impact on aquatic life:- Due to construction of dams on the rivers, the fish in the downstream area do not get sufficient nutrients material. Regulating and damming of rivers affect the natural flow of water causing poor sediment flow of downward, and excessive sedimentation at the bottom of reservoir. Dams also fragment rivers making it difficult for aquatic fauna to migrate for spawning i.e., to produce eggs.
iii ) Displacement of local communities:- The building of large dams results in displacement of local communities. The local people often have to give up their land and livelihood and their meagre (scant in amount) access and control over resources for the greater food of the nation.
iv) Change in the cropping pattern:- Multipurpose projects are responsible for providing assured means of irrigation to farmers. Due to this, most of farmers have changed the cropping pattern shifting to water intensive and commercial crops. This has lead to salinisation of soil leading to ecological imbalance.