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DAM-L [fwd] article: the karma of dams
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LS: "The karma of dams"
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The karma of dams
Shekhar Singh, Indian Express
October 25, 2000
------------------------------------
In his article titled `Reservoirs for the future: The dharma of dams' (IE,
October 23), C.V.J. Varma eloquently describes the growing need for water
and power in India and concludes that it is the duty (or dharma) of dams to
meet these growing needs. Though I have no quarrel with his facts, I would
like to question his conclusions on the basis of the actual performance
(karma) of large dams in India.
In a recent report written by some of us for the World Commission on Dams
(WCD), `Large Dams: India's Experience', an exhaustive look at the facts
and figures available establishes that until 1978, most dams were not
assessed for their environmental and social impacts. Even when they began
to be assessed, alternatives to the dam were never assessed and mostly not
even considered. Also, that the current system of granting environmental
clearances is subject to all sorts of political and administrative
pressures, resulting in clearances being granted to projects without
assessing their impacts or even when they are non-viable. What is worse,
the concerned ministry has little ability to ensure that the parameters and
conditions of clearance are adhered to. In fact, they are disregarded and
flouted, as a rule.
Perhaps the best indicator of how lightly the nation has taken the
environmental and social damage that large dams cause is the absence of
data on these aspects. We do not know what the environmental impacts of
most dams were. In most cases we do not know whether any of the safeguards
prescribed actually worked. We do not even know the total number of people
displaced or the area of forests submerged by large dams.
In the WCD report an attempt is made to gather together all available
information and, by extrapolation, get some understanding of the magnitude
of the impacts. Accordingly, the amount of forests submerged by large dams,
between 1980 and 2000, works out to be between 9.1 million hectares (our
calculation) and 4.5 million hectares (based on the Central Water
Commission data). And this, when we are already well below the stipulated
33 per cent forest cover.
Similarly, the data provided by the Central Power and Irrigation Board of
the Government of India for 19 dams shows that in all but one of these dams
(Machkund), the rate of siltation of the reservoir is higher than
anticipated. This has serious repercussions on the life, the safety and the
economic viability of the dam. The excess rate of siltation ranges from 115
per cent in Kangsabati to 809 per cent in Maithon, with 10 of the 19 having
an actual rate that is over 200 per cent of the anticipated rate. In an
alternate data set, of the CWC, for 13 of these projects, the variation is
between 649 per cent (Beas unit II) to 88 per cent (Panchet). Eight of
these 13 show observed rates of over 200 per cent.
Even this level of data is not available for the numerous other well known
adverse environmental impacts of large dams, including impacts upstream and
on the catchment; on biodiversity, species and ecosystems; on human health;
on water quality; on reservoir induced seismicity; on micro climate; on
water availability downstream; on salt water ingress, and on water logging
and salinity.
Dam failure and emergency releases of water pose a threat to downstream
populations. Again, though no comprehensive data are available, the havoc
wreaked downstream by, for example, the Bhakra Dam (in late 1970s and again
in 1988) and the Rihand Dam in 1997, is well known. Dr Y.K. Murthy, a
former chairman of the Central Water and Power Commission, has concluded
that, of the 131 dams studied by him, 36 manifested distress, in 20 the
spillways were inadequate and in 25 the freeboards were inadequate, all
compromising the safety of the dam. In 90 of the dams studied there was no
emergency reservoir operations plan.
Perhaps the most heart-rending aspect of large dams is the displacement of
human populations. Again, no comprehensive data are available. A study by
the CWC, of 54 projects, showed a per-dam submergence of 24,555 ha. The
same study showed a per-hectare displacement of 1.1 person. If one were to
extrapolate these figures to the 4291 large dams built in India, the total
displacement figure would be 11,59,02055 or 11.5 crore in the last 100
years or so. Our own calculations, based on a study of 213 dams, show that
the average submergence per dam was 8748 ha and the average displacement
per hectare (based on data of 83 dams) was 1.51 per hectare. Extrapolating
from these, the total figure of displacement comes to 5,66,81878 or 5.6
crores. Perhaps even this is an exaggeration, but what it does establish is
that those displaced by large dams number not in the hundreds or the
thousands but in crores. Further, data available for 34 dams shows that
tribals formed 47 per cent of those displaced, despite the fact thattheir
national share of population is only a little over eight per cent.
So, clearly, the major costs of large dams are borne by the poor and the
weak. But who are the major beneficiaries? The irrigation benefits go to
those downstream and, among them, disproportionately to the large farmers.
Similarly, the peaking power that dams provide goes primarily to meet the
peak demand of the urban rich and the industry. What does the nation gain
as a whole? According to the WCD study, large dams, after 1990, show no
economic benefits over costs and only have a distributional function, where
"the benefits are reaped by farmers and others in the command areas and the
costs are borne by the society at large, the tax payers and the
project-affected people. There is possibly no net gain to society from
major and medium irrigation projects". Even if hydroelectric generation is
taken into consideration, .."the gains from power are unlikely to
compensate for losses from irrigation unless hydro-power generation is
extremely large". And this is when only a small proportion of the
environmental andsocial costs are being internalised.
So, we have a situation today where thousands of dams have been built, with
little or no environmental assessments and safeguards, and huge adverse
social impacts. Millions of hectares of forests have been destroyed, huge
areas have become water logged, the incidence of water related diseases has
increased, lakhs of people have been thrown out of their homes, mainly
tribals, the poor and the weak. And all this to create structures that,
even without acknowledging most of the environmental and social costs, add
not a rupee worth of value to the Indian economy. All they do is
re-distribute the existing resources so that the poor are further deprived
and the relatively well off get the benefits. If this is development, then
let me awake in another world.
The writer is on the faculty of the Indian Institute of Public
Administration, New Delhi, and is a member of the Narmada Control Authority
Sub-Group on the Environment
We have a situation today where thousands of dams have been built, with
little or no environmental assessments and safeguards, and huge adverse
social impacts.
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