3/01/2010

Q. Why dams are so expensive to build? Do you have any suggestions to meet the expenses?

6 comments:

Zahra Batool said...

The distribution of water in Pakistan is surely not equal.
firstly when water is distributed in various provinces the ground water extracted from Punjab is not counted in the water consumption of Punjab province. by this i mean that the leaders of Baluchistan complain that when Sui gas is extracted from underground it is counted in the gas distribution of Baluchistan but when water is distributed the ground water of Punjab is not counted in only the rivers are counted. then how can we say that water is equally distributed among the provinces of Pakistan. apart from it when dams are build, many of the dams are constructed on such places which block the water toward sindh and Baluchistan provinces leaving them barren and the water is stored and obtained by Punjab and partly NWFP province for e.g the mangla Dam built on river jhelum enables less water flow through the province of sindh.

Zahra Batool said...

it may not be surprising
that the cost of tarbela dam was SD 1,497 Million. dams are expensive to build for various reasons.
1. equipment used
2.turbines
3.labor cost
4.material to make dam crest is costly
5.population is displaced,thus it is also required to be settled again.
6.such as the Tarbela dam if a earth filled dam is constructed money for the artificial lake is required.
7.architects from foreign countries are hired,they are needed to pay too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcOrciTLoB0
the link shows the requirements of dams which are very costly.

solutions.
1.small dams must be made which suit LEDCS
2.Aid from World bank or any other organization can be taken.
3.dams should be build on places with less population,so population displacement expense can be reduced.
4.labor should be hired from places such as Afghanistan which have less money requirement and which have money value less then ours.
5.dams should constructed near to the population so less investment on transformers.
6.treaties should signed with other countries for technology and in return some of the resources of Pakistan can be exploited.
7.dams should be constructed on places with a natural lake so less expense of making an earth filled dam.

TPB said...

Good work done Zahra!
yes the dams are pretty costly and in a country like Pakistan where we have quite a few problems regarding availibility of technological support and up-market machinery, it makes things more our of focus.
Besides the land is not developed and population is more concentrated towards larger cities, so the evacuation and rehabilitation of the people is also a great problem.

Zahra Batool said...

Thank you Mam,
and places such as rawalpindi and mangla where rawal and mangla dams have been constructed were densely populated and the evacuation of people at that time costed about US 5 million dollars for tarbela dam.
its too expensive to even plan for a dam in places such as pakistan or even in other countries!

shery said...

The dams are expensive to build because of the following factors;
1.A vast area needs to be cleared and bought before the Dam can be made.
2.Different materials are required to build the dam wall.
3.Payments for manual workers(labour cost).
4.To make the plan for the Dam construction architects are hired sometimes from foreign countries.
5.Machinery cost.
6.The re settlement of population.
7.Some costly challenges are also introduced sometimes,to suit the landscape e.g laying of conveyor built to transport matrials etc.
8.Power generation equipments such as turbines are to be bought and technicians are hired for their installment
9.The foundation or the dam crest is to be built initially.


To tackle these challenges we should;
1.Financial aid should be taken from IMF or World bank.
2. On the principle of small is beautiful small dams should be made in countries under crisis or less economically developed countries.
3.Non-governmental organizations shoud be promoted.
4.Dams should be constructed on natural lakes so that no dam wall is required and less investment is needed.
5.Labourers should be hired from countries with less demands for money and high populations.
6.Dams should be constructed near population masses to save money on wirings and transformers but its not advisable to do so because if the dam gets damaged by a natural hazard such as an earthquake, the deathtoll will be much higher then the initial one of the earthquake.

TPB said...

Welcome to the discussion board Sheheryar!
You have done commendable work for the listing, I would like to comment on your last point i.e.,
6.Dams should be constructed near population masses to save money on wirings and transformers but its not advisable to do so because if the dam gets damaged by a natural hazard such as an earthquake, the deathtoll will be much higher then the initial one of the earthquake.

Dams are not possible to be built near large concentrations as it needs many more things than just nbeing close to a city. It needs a height to let water pressur efall on the turbines, that would only be possible in the Northern areas of PAkistan. And as you might be aware that the population concentration there is not high at all.
Good Day