Dams & Water Reservoirs

A Dam is a barrier built to contain water and prevent flooding. The water confined behind such a structure, often forming a lake or reservoir, used for irrigation, as a source of drinking water and for provision of hydroelectric power.

Rivers are the cradles of human civilization. The great civilizations have flourished on the banks of various rivers, world over. Eleven rivers and forty-two tributaries bless Goa, which is known as the Tropical Paradise.The idea of building a dam is to control flooding and to and to harness it for hydropower.

Dam also reduces emissions of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide; generating electricity equal to about 40 million tons of coal. Small dams do have an advantage in that they take shorter construction time, small initial capital cost, shorter gestation period with early benefits spread out facilities in various regions creating a better development balance within the same constraintof resources etc. Thus they are also required as necessary supplements to big dams.

They are eminently suited for carry over storages and thus impart greater reliability and stability to the system. They provide most effective way of flood regulation and control. Most reliable during drought when small storages do not get filled up and suffer excessive evaporation loss. Thus reliability of large dams is much greater. In drought years the reliability of small dam is very poor when it reduces to less than 10%.

Despite of some drawbacks, the growing population and their need for greater economic development call for more water, in which demand will exceed availability. More storage will be needed to meet the challenges of development and sustainability, but we must take great care for the environment and cultural inheritance and make sure that those people affected by the development of dams will be better off than before the dams were built".

Goa Dams consist of Mhadei Dam Goa, Salaulim Dam Goa, Arambol Dam Goa, Keri Dam Goa.