Study on the human and social dimensions of dam-building projects. (Inquiry on Karoun 4 Dam in Iran)

Abstract

Development is dialectic of destruction and construction and developmental projects contain the same specifications. Each and every construction will obviously hurt some fields especially the human and social ones. Thus culture and society the “missing concept” and the “ forgotten dimension” of development have been faced the highest level of loss and disservice in the field of development. Meanwhile the developmental-constructive projects like dam- building projects in Iran are of the same measures that the country takes for developing. Dams especially the hydro-electric ones are the national projects which are enormously lucrative but they will bring infinite local and regional damages to the area. Usually noticing the national economic benefits of the projects lead to neglecting the local-regional aspects, in other words in evaluating the projects, the social values are being disregarded. Regarding this fact, for estimating the compensatory fee the law is the measure and law will never take social affairs into consideration on this specific issue. Karoun 4 Dam is of the same projects that is the last dam which is being built on Karoun River in Chaharmahal Bakhtiari Province of Iran. The dam has influences on the regional towns and villages of Ardal city. This article’s goal is to study the social aspects of dambuilding especially the Karoun 4 Dam and it emphasizes on the regional people’s point of view as well as the necessity of evaluating the social and cultural aspects of the dam-building projects.