Issues related to dam safety in India & DRIP
In the last week of February, the National Dam Safety Conference was organized by Central Water Commission (CWC) in association with Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam and IIT Roorkee. In this conference, some disturbing data was released over safety of dams in India.
Around 80% of country’s 5000 dams are over 25 years old and are confronted with grave safety challenges. Apart from ageing, unabated wear and tear and sub-par maintenance are also disrupting the safety of the dams.
Worryingly, about 170 dams in the country are more than 100 years old and are basically earthen structures that have been built with obsolete technologies. These earthern dams pose a grave danger to life and property and are particularly susceptible to dam related mishaps given the fact that bulk of the landmass in which these dams are present are susceptible to frequent earthquakes. This vulnerability has increased manifold with water flows into reservoirs turning highly unpredictable.
Though, outright dam failures are very rare, it cannot be completely ruled out. So far, at least 36 such incidents with respect to the earthern dams are on record. More importantly, out of 36, about half of the dam failures were catastrophic causing extensive devastation. Some examples of dam failures are: Jamunia dam in Madhya Pradesh (2002), Lawa-ka-bas dam in Rajasthan (2003), Panchat and Khadakwasala dams (1961), Nanak Sagar (1967)Tigra (1970) and Chikkahole (1972).
Issues
Though, India has world’s third largest count of dams after China and the US, there is no statutory framework to ensure dam safety. The UPA government introduced a bill in the Parliament for fixing responsibility for dam maintenance and specifying mechanisms and procedures for this purpose, but the bill got lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
State governments being the custodians of dams are primarily responsible for the dismal condition of the dams. The Central Water Commission (CWC), which is the apex organisation for water resources management, in 2006, asked the states to come up with an emergency action plan for large dams and laid down guidelines for that purpose. But many states had chosen to ignore such strategies. The ministry of water resources, too, in 2011 came up with crisis management plans for states to handle dam related contingencies and asked them to set up dam safety organisations. But, so far, not even half of the states complied with the directions of the water resources ministry.
Current Government Policy on Dam Safety
The present NDA government has prepared a draft law for ensuring dam safety and has circulated to the states. Keeping in mind the gravity of the situation, Parliament needs to expedite the passage of the bill.
CWC is running a six year Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project with financial support from the World Bank. But it covers only 5% of the unsafe dams spread across of seven states. This scheme needs to be restructures to include all the unsafe dams in the country and it needs to be continued even after its scheduled culmination of 2018.
A well planned administrative machinery needs to be created in the states with the objective of ensuring dam safety. The states can also avail the assistance of the Dam Safety Organization of CWC. States should also issue executive order for inspection, maintenance and surveillance of dams from time to time.
States can follow the example of Gujarat and Maharashtra in developing infrastructure required for dam safety surveillance. For example, the Bhakra Beas Management Board and the Maharashtra State dam inspection and dam safety services have well manned dam safety monitoring procedures in place.
Lastly, Disaster preparedness in advance can minimise the loss of life and property in case of any eventuality. Visualizing challenges in advance and putting in place measures to counteract the disaster will reduce the damage potential of the disaster to a great extent. Thus, unless safety issues concerning dams are addressed, the possibility of dam failures would continue to haunt the country
DRIP (Dam Safety Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP)
Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the financial support from the World Bank has embarked upon a six year Dam Safety Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) in the year 2012. Under this project, comprehensive rehabilitation and improvement of 225 large dams are carried out in seven States. In addition, institutional reforms and strengthening of regulatory measures related to safe and financially-sustainable dam operations are carried out. The seven states where the project is being implemented are: Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand. The project has been successful in introducing novel solutions and technologies to address serious problems concerning dam safety.
