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Resettlement Outcomes of Large Dams

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Impacts of Large Dams: A Global Assessment

Part of the book series: Water Resources Development and Management ((WRDM))

Abstract

The adverse social impacts of most large dams continue to be unacceptable. They also reduce a project’s potential benefits. This is especially the case with resettlement which some experts (including Asit Biswas and Robert Goodland, former Chief Environmental Adviser of the World Bank Group) consider to be the most contentious issue associated with large dams. Fortunately, there is potential for helping resettling communities to become project beneficiaries.

Most of the issues discussed in this chapter, including the statistical analysis of resettlement outcomes, are dealt with in more detail in my 2005 The Future of Large Dams: Dealing with Social, Environmental, Institutional and Political Costs.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to dedicate this chapter to the memory of fellow WCD commissioner Jan Veltrop who, as an engineer, pointed out that this chapter would be more influential if it included the first detailed statistical analysis of resettlement outcomes. The result of that suggestion was the analysis that John Gay and I subsequently completed on 50 large dams.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Thayer Scudder

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  1. Thayer Scudder
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Third World Centre for Water Management, Avenida Manantial Oriente 27, Los Clubes, Atizapan, 52958, Mexico

    Cecilia Tortajada

  2. Fac. Engineering, Dept. Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, 06531, Turkey

    Dogan Altinbilek

  3. Third World Centre for Water Management, Avenida Manantial Oriente 27, Los Clubes, Atizapan, 52958, Mexico

    Asit K. Biswas

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Scudder, T. (2012). Resettlement Outcomes of Large Dams. In: Tortajada, C., Altinbilek, D., Biswas, A. (eds) Impacts of Large Dams: A Global Assessment. Water Resources Development and Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23571-9_3

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