This has been happening all over the world. Be it the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river in China, Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river in India, or the Sivand Dam across Bolaghi gorge in Iran, such giant projects often have the effect of destroying/submerging historical sites of immeasurable value:(. Archaeologists often have to rush to save whatever little they can, before water washes away priceless artifacts (See one of my old posts on Iran's Sivand dam here). A similar situation has arisen in South Eastern Turkey, where a massive dam on the Tigris River threatens to submerge Hasankeyf, a site of great historic importance.

Piers of a 12th Century Bridge at Hasankeyf (Courtesy: RiverNet)An international campaign halted the project in 2002. But the project has been restarted, and it is part of the Greater Anatolia Project, a series of hydroelectric plants and dams, and is all the more controversial because of its location in the predominantly Kurdish south-east of Turkey.
Hasankeyf was an important crossroads between East and West, occupied by nine major civilisations from the Assyrians to the Ottomans. If the dam goes ahead the whole town will be submerged with the exception of the citadel, perched on top of the cliffs. Among the losses will be the Sultan Suleiman Mosque, the minaret of which is one of the most outstanding examples of early 15th-century Ayyubid architecture; the cylindrical tomb of Zeynel Bey, a rare example of Central Asian style architecture in Anatolia; and the tomb of the holy Imam Abdullah, grandson of Cafer-i Tayyar, uncle of the prophet Mohammed, a shrine visited by about 30,000 Shia pilgrims each year.
True, that human progress must go on. But there is often a lack of concern for historical ruins, as developing nations are going on the fast track to develop dams, and blow up mountains, all in the name of progress. As with the developed countries in the 18th and 19th centuries, this can only lead to a further loss to our common heritage:(:(.