Relook at the Dam Safety Act
Context:
- A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in North Sikkim’s South Lhonak Lake recently in 2023 destroyed the Teesta III dam at Chungthang, one of India’s largest hydropower projects.
The state of India’s dams:
- Approximately 80% of the nearly 6,000 big dams in India are over 25 years old and pose a safety risk. Late in 2021, a new Dam Safety Act (DSA) was passed.
- Following the Sikkim tragedy, reports have shown that, contrary to the Act, there were no early warning systems, risk assessments, or preventive measures in place.
Sections of 2021’s Dam Safety Act (DSA):
- It was implemented in reaction to disasters linked to dam failure brought on by inadequate maintenance and surveillance.
- The Act stipulated important duties and required the establishment of bodies at the federal and state levels for execution.
- It said that policies and guidelines for dam safety will be supervised by the National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS);
- The execution and settlement of disputes at the State level would fall under the purview of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA).
- At the federal level, the Central Water Commission (CWC) Chairman would be in charge of dam safety regulations.
- There will be the establishment of a State Dam Safety Organisation (SDSO) and State Committee on Dam Safety (SCDS).
- States are required by provisions to establish emergency action plans, classify dams according to the risk of hazards, carry out routine inspections, install emergency flood warning systems, perform safety assessments, and carry out period risk assessment studies.
- States are required to document and report any instances of dam failure.
- Any violation of the Act’s provisions is subject to fines and/or up to two years in jail.
Obstacles to dam security:
- The Sikkim episode, according to experts, is an example of blind spots in both legislation and practise. The DSA fails to incentivize transparency and does not support risk-based decision making.
- The Act mandates thorough safety assessments of dams, but the methods for reporting and analysing failures are not standardised.
- From the spillway capacity (which regulates the discharge of water from a reservoir) to the design of the dam, the Sikkim GLOF demonstrates inadequate compliance at every stage.
The future of dam safety:
- The Act also requires regular assessment and hazard profiling. Risk of hazards changes instantly in response to factors like urbanisation, climate change, and the location or usage of water by individuals or businesses.
- New rule curves (which establish the capacity of dam reservoirs) and inundation maps are anticipated to be produced on a regular basis, both of which improve downstream area safety.
- Every five years or so, spillway capacity and other metrics should be reviewed; however, periodic reviews are rarely carried out, or if they are, the results are not readily available to the public.
Way Forward:
- The construction and design of dams that follow safety margins, their upkeep and operation in accordance with regulations, the real-time, easily accessible recording of data, the prediction of potentially dangerous events, and the implementation of emergency plans are just a few of the many components that go into dam safety.
