Our world's population is growing rapidly, so the need for food and energy is rising day by day. In order to supply more food, people increased their agricultural areas by opening new agricultural areas, irrigation, and mechanization, and to supply more energy, people have built environment-friendly and renewable energy sources, like dams, wind, solar, and waves. It is accepted in general that dams are one of the most significant sources of producing environmentally friendly and renewable energy. In addition, dams have a crucial role in meeting people's need for drinking water, regulating irrigation of the lands, and protecting agricultural lands from damage by floods and overflowing. In spite of these significant contributions of dams, some people have claimed that dams cause some damage to the environment. Do dams have really brought a tremendous amount of advantages to our life?
On the positive side of building dams, in the article "The Roles of Dams in Development," Dogan Altinbilek, who is the Professor in General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works, Turkey, says that lives condition of human beings certainly developed, thanks to the construction of dams. The major benefits of dams are to supply potable and industrial water, to use in irrigation of agricultural fields, energy and power production, and flood control. He claims that without the treatment of the rivers, the world could be a very different place to live, because of floods, cycles of drought, and starvation. In order to prevent these negative effects, people should build dams. Also, He asserts that for the satisfaction of modern society and economic growth, energy is the most significant supply. One of the major advantages of the dam is to produce electric energy without polluting the environment. Due to this reason, dams are one of the best ways to produce electricity. According to the WCD report, dams contribute to approximately 20% production of electricity in the world. Also, Hydropower plants are 2 times effective than thermal plant with 90%, according to the study of USCOLD in the USA. Besides, dams allow people to do some activities, such as fishing, having a picnic, to get rid of daily life's stress. As a result, this article shows to us that dams have a crucial role on our life to cope with unexpected flood, to collect water to drink when the weather is drought, and to sup...
