Does India need to relook the Dam Safety Act

General Studies Paper 2

Context

• Recently in 2023, a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in North Sikkim’s South Lhonak Lake washed away one of the biggest hydropower projects in India, the Teesta III dam at Chungthang.

Status of dams in India

• India has almost 6,000 large dams and about 80% of them are more than 25 years old and carry safety risks. A new Dam Safety Act (DSA) was passed in late 2021.
• Reports since the Sikkim disaster revealed there were no early warning systems, no risk assessment or preventive measures in place as required under the Act.

Provisions of the Dam Safety Act (DSA), 2021

• It was enacted as a response to deficient surveillance and maintenance causing dam failure related disasters.
• The Act listed key responsibilities and mandated that national and State Level bodies be established for implementation.
• It said a National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS) would oversee dam safety policies and regulations;
• A National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) would be charged with implementation and resolving State­ level disputes
• The Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) would head dam safety protocols at the national level
• A State Committee on Dam Safety (SCDS) and State Dam Safety Organisation (SDSO) would be set up.
• Provisions require States to classify dams based on hazard risk, conduct regular inspections, create emergency action plans, institute emergency flood warning systems, and undertake safety reviews and period risk assessment studies.
• States are to report and record incidents of dam failures.
• Failure to comply with any provision of the Act is punishable with imprisonment upto 2 years and/or fines.

Challenges to dam safety

• Experts say the Sikkim incident exemplifies blind spots in both legislation and implementation. The DSA does not promote risk based decision making and fails to incentivise transparency.
• The Act requires dam builders to conduct comprehensive dam safety evaluations, but there is no standardisation of how the failure is analysed and reported.
• The Sikkim GLOF reveals poor compliance at all levels, from the dam’s design to the spillway capacity (which controls the release of water from a reservoir).

Way forward for dam safety

• Hazard profiling and regular assessment are also mandated by the Act. Hazard risk fluctuates at the slightest touch, responding to climate change, urbanisation, and the way people/companies use water or where they are located.
• Periodic reviews are expected to bring forth fresh inundation maps and new rule curves (which determine the capacity of dam reservoirs), all of which contribute towards the safety of the downstream areas.
• Spillway capacity and other metrics should be reviewed every five years or so, but periodic reviews are often not conducted or if they are, their findings are not easily available in the public domain.

Conclusion

• Dam safety is a function of many parts: designing and constructing dams that adhere to safety margins, maintaining and operating them per guidelines, recording data in real­time in an accessible format, forecasting hazardous events and instituting emergency plans, to name a few.