Abdullahi, A.A,Raheem, U.ASaliman, S.T2019-10-292019-10-292013-07-021819-8465http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/3085While the Nigerian government is focusing its attention on building new dams, the problems and challenges posed by the existing dams to the people and environment across dam communities of Nigeria seem to have been neglected or glossed over. This paper examines the environmental challenges posed by existing dams and how these problems have aggravated grassroots activism and the quest for social justice in dam communities of Nigeria. The paper also examines the institutional arrangement that has been put in place by the government of Nigeria to address these agitations and how effective this might be. On the whole, the paper draws on the concept of community participation to interrogate the socio-cultural and ecologic chasm that certain large dam projects appear to have created between the state and local communities.enEnvironment,Environmental degradation,Dams;HYPADEC;Community participation,Nigeria.Article