Role of Dams in Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Control

The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) is a scientific and technical, non-governmental international organization. The objectives of ICID are to stimulate and promote the development and application of irrigation, drainage, flood control, river training and environmental management in all their technical, economic, social and environmental aspects, as well as the needed research leading to the use of modern techniques. During the past years intensive discussions have been going on at a global scale regarding the future of dams. These discussions have mainly been initiated due to environmental concerns and resettlement problems related to the development of new reservoirs. In the light of these discussions ICID was asked to clarify its position. Since then a position paper on the 'Role of dams for irrigation, drainage and flood control' has been prepared which was almost unanimously approved by ICID's national committees. In this paper the main issues and findings as described in the position paper are presented. The future steps ICID is planning to take in order to contribute to the finding of sustainable solutions and improvements in decision-making processes on dams are also illustrated.