Advantages and disadvantages of dams

 Advantages

1. Dams generate electricity

2. Dams provide water for irrigation to the land below the dam even during dry weeks

3. Dams ensure year long water supply to the people for their domestic use

4. Dams control  flood and soil erosion on the land below the reservoir

5. These reservoirs are also used for recreational activities such as swimming, fishing and boating

6. Governments can generate revenue by making the dam sites as amusement parks and sightseeing places

Disadvantages

 1. 1. As the dams are being built on large areas it will be required to drive out the people from these areas and its surroundings. So resettlement and rehabilitation of these displaced people is the first major problem and it is the experience that the tribal peoples were mostly affected

2. As the dams are being built on a large area, it causes a huge loss of forest and habitat for wild life

3. Dammed revers block fish migration and causes subsequent extinction of many fishes and aquatic species

4. Dam causes river bed deepening and also lower ground water table along the river.

5. Improper management of dams and releasing of water causes flood in the heavy raining season.
6. Sometimes it endangers the large population in the surrounding area in case of any leakage or weakness to withstand the natural disasters.