India needs more large dams to enhance river water storage capacity and equip itself to meet the demands of population growth, economic growth and sustainable development, Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Arjun Ram Meghwal, has said.
Delivering the inaugural address at the first International Dam Safety Conference organised by the Central Water Commission here on Tuesday, he said the dams in the country had a total storage capacity of only 289 billion cubic metres (BCM), against a potential of 690 BCM.
“While there is need to construct more large dams to meet our demands, it is also important to safeguard the existing dam assets and ensure their safety,” he said.
The Minister said 80% of the 5,254 large dams in the country were over 25-years old. As many as 213 dams were over 100-years old and faced serious dam health and safety issues, necessitating urgent rehabilitation.
Mr. Meghwal added that 16 States and two Central agencies had submitted proposals to the tune of ₹9,000 crore for the rehabilitation of 600 large dams in the second phase of the World Bank-assisted Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) due to begin in the year 2020.
Negotiations
Later talking to the media, he said the Central government would hold negotiations with States to resolve the inter-State disputes over water-sharing and dam safety.
Chairman, Central Water Commission, S. Masood Husain, said emergency action plans were being developed for all the dams taken up for rehabilitation under DRIP. The two-day conference provides a platform to review the ongoing work on 223 dams in the first phase of the project.
Experts including Satoru Ueda, lead dam specialist, World Bank, Anton J. Schleiss, President, International Commission of Large Dams and Nicholas Schofield, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Water Partnership, stressed the need to factor climate resilience and disaster risk reduction into dam safety.
Minister for Water Resources Mathew T. Thomas highlighted the need to revise the guidelines on dam safety issued by the CWC. He said the rehabilitation and improvement of 53 dams in Kerala were expected to be completed by 2020.
Electricity Minister M.M. Mani, joint secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Sanjay Kundu and chairman, Kerala State Electricity Board, K. Elangovan were also present.
Mr. Meghwal launched a software tool named Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application (DHARMA) for better operation and management of dams.
