Sanatan Prabhat > Post Type > News > International News > Ageing majority of the 58,700 large dams across the world pose growing threat! – United Nations

Ageing majority of the 58,700 large dams across the world pose growing threat! – United Nations

In Hindu Rashtra, lakes and ponds will be created and used instead of the dams!

(Symbolic image)

New York (U.S.A.) – According to the latest UN report, most of the 58,700 large dams worldwide were constructed between 1930 and 1970 with a design life of 50 to 100 years. Dams begin to show signs of ageing after 50 years. These include increasing cases of dam failures, progressively increasing costs of dam repair and maintenance, increasing reservoir sedimentation, and loss of a dam’s functionality and effectiveness. By 2050, most people on Earth will live in the impact area of the dams. This report was based on dams surveyed in the United States, France, Canada, India, Japan, Zambia, Zimbabwe, etc.

United Nations’’s Canada-based ‘Institute for Water, Environment and Health’ prepared the report titled ‘Ageing water infrastructure: An emerging global risk’. According to this report, majority of the dams have either crossed their life span or are on the verge of it.

(Courtesy: Kaumudy English)

The report claims:

  1. There are over 1,115 large dams in India, that will be roughly 50 years old in 2025. These dams along with many other dams in the world would prove to be a threat.
  2. The large dams in the world hold approximately between 7,000 – 8,300 cubic kilometres of water (About 80% of Canada’s land). 93% of large dams in the world are located in just 25 countries.
  3.  The report said that 32,716 large dams (55% of the world’s total) are found in just four Asian countries: China, India, Japan, and South Korea.
Dams in India

(Click on the picture)
  1. About 1,115 large dams in India, will turn 50 years old in 2025.
  2. In 2050, more than 4,250 large dams in the country will be over 50 years old and 64 large dams will be more than 150-years-old.
  3. Approximately 35 lakh people are at risk if India’s Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala, built over 100 years ago, was to fail.

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